Pottsville, PA Powder Mill Plant Explosion, May 1899

Powder Mill Blows Up.

The Plant at Pottsville, Penn., Completely Demolished.

Pottsville, Penn., May 7.-The powder-mill plant of the Pottsville Water Company, situated in the Indian Run Valley, several miles west of here, blew up to-day, destroying eighteen tons of powder. No workmen were about the plant at the time of the explosion, but John K. Seiders, who lives near by, was slightly hurt. A gang of tramps, it is believed, set fire to a magazine which contained 1,200 kegs of blasting powder and 50 kegs of rifle powder, in all about fourteen tons.

When the flames reached the powder it exploded with a terrific report. Pottsville and vicinity were shaken and many window panes in the houses in the western suburb were broken. Five minutes afterward there was a second explosion, when the drying house, containing 400 kegs, or four tons of powder, went up. The two explosions wrecked the entire plant. Debris was carried for a distance of half a mile. A magazine containing about half a ton of dynamite and several explosive dynamite caps, on a hillside not 100 yards away, had one of its walls broken, but the explosives it contained were not ignited. The loss by the explosion will amount to about $10,000. The plant was formerly owned by the Dupont Powder Company.

New York Times, New York, NY 8 May 1899
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!