From the Richmond Dispatch, 1/28/1862, p. 2, c. 4
Terrible Explosion. - We regret that we have this
morning another accident to record from the handling of materials of war, though
so far as at present advised there is no loss of life. At quarter past 11
o’clock yesterday morning an explosion occurred at the Government Laboratory, at
the foot of Seventh street, which, though not fatal, is very painful in its
results. It appears that at the hour named there was an explosion of a very
serious character, involving the serious injury of several human beings
immediately in the vicinity. In the rear of the establishment, in what is
generally known as the sea-coast ammunition room, a number of boys were sitting
in a corner filling and ramming fuses. Probably from the fact that a vent was
not properly secured the foul air got between the drift and the composition, and
an explosion ensued, fearful in its effects, and quite destructive to property.
Immediately after it occurred men were seen leaping from the windows, every one
of which was completely shattered by the concussions, and the building itself
was seen to be on fire from its effects. The boys who sat in the circle of some
twelve feet square, surrounding the place of operation, were very badly burnt.
One, named John Fitzgerald, was burnt about the face, and legs, and one eye
seemed nearly gone. Others of the boys were injured nearly as bad; their names
are Robert Coleman, Robert Robinson, Charles Shope, Michael Byron, John Harman,
and Peter Branders. We are informed that one or two others are necessary to
complete the list, but were unable to obtain names. Two of the boys ran in
flames to the river and plunged in, and another ran up the street with every
particle of clothes burnt off. At the time of the explosion they were driving
fuse; yet strange to say, while a large quantity of fixed ammunition was close
by, there was but little damage done to material except in the immediate
neighborhood. - Boxes and kegs of Forseco’s wooden fuses were close by, and
numbers upon numbers of loaded bombs, and shrapnel shot, and all remained
unharmed. The men of the establishment, after slightly recovering from their
alarm, rushed for the water sources, and finding the building on fire, poured in
bucket after bucket of water, and succeeded in extinguishing the flames. The
magazine is situated within some six or eight feet of the house, and yet it was
not injured in the least. It is, indeed, remarkable, considering the number of
males and females who were working there at the time, and the large amount of
explosive material all around, that the loss and suffering was so little.
The excitement in the neighborhood was intense. The
spectacle of men and women rushing from the building was exceedingly exciting;
but still we are gratified to state that the accident is by no means so great as
at first reported.
It was this affair that occasioned the alarm of fire
between eleven and twelve o’clock.
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