SQUIB EXPLOSION KILLS SIX.

FIVE PERSONS ALSO FATALLY HURT IN MINING TOWN ACCIDENT.

Scranton, Penn., March 31. -- Six persons are known to have been killed and five fatally injured by an explosion in the factory of the Dickson Squib Company at Priceburg, near here, to-day. The dead are LIZZIE BRAY, Priceburg; BECKIE LEWIS, North Scranton; LIZZIE MATTHEWS, Olyphant; GEORGE CALLAHAN, Priceburg; TERESA CALLAHAN, Priceburg, and one other.
What caused the explosion is not known, but it is said that one of the girls threw a squib into a stove, and that the force of the explosion was so great that it wrecked the building and set it on fire. The squibs are used in coal mining.
The Dickson Squib Company occupied only the first floor of the structure, the CALLAHAN family having rooms on the second floor, where the two CALLAHAN children lost their lives. THOMAS CALLAHAN, their father, was at work, and MRS. CALLAHAN had just left the room when the explosion occurred. The children aged three years and six months, respectively, were playing on the floor, and both were instantly killed.
The building caught fire and the flames communicated to two adjoining buildings, one occupied as a hotel and the other as a butcher's shop, and both were destroyed.
The bodies of the dead were so badly burned that it was with great difficulty that they could be recognized.

The New York Times New York 1904-04-01
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!