Fatal Dynamite Blast on Second Avenue
A Seattle contractor and his powder man face manslaughter charges following a reckless dynamite incident that killed a young boy.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Contractor C. J. Erickson and his powder man, Walter Duncan, will answer to the charge of manslaughter. Prosecuting Attorney Scott will file informations against both men as a result of an explosion in which Terence Scott was killed a week ago on the Second avenue regrade. Erickson is one of the largest street contractors in Seattle. He is regrading Second avenue, where a deep cut is being made at the intersection of Denny way. At this point, Duncan was thawing some giant powder in a kettle over an open fire. He left the dynamite alone, and the little victim approached the place. An explosion occurred that shook the whole of North Seattle. Terence Scott's mangled body was picked up 30 feet from where the boy had stood. At a coroner's inquest, Erickson and Duncan were found guilty of criminal negligence.
“An explosion came that shook the whole of North Seattle. Terence Scott's mangled body was afterward picked up 30 feet from where the boy had stood.”
The Second Avenue regrade was part of a massive series of engineering projects that literally flattened Seattle’s topography. The negligence described here—thawing dynamite over an open fire—serves as a grim reminder of the hazardous human cost embedded in the city’s rapid, early 20th-century expansion.
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