Worker Critically Injured in Blasting Accident
A laborer working on the Maple Valley extension of the Columbia & Puget Sound railway was struck by a jagged wooden splinter after a stump blast, leaving him in a life-threatening condition.
While blasting stumps at Francis' camp, on the Maple Valley extension of the Columbia & Puget Sound railway, yesterday morning, Andrew Noland was struck by a splinter which crashed through his skull. He now lies at Providence hospital in a precarious condition. Noland and a man named Frederickson were working together. When the explosion took place, the stump was shattered and pieces thrown high in the air. One of these, about eighteen inches long, came down with such force on Noland's head that the sharp point pierced his skull. Noland is unmarried, about 35 years old, and has no relatives in this state. He came from San Francisco two years ago.
“The scalp was torn from the skull and flapped about when Noland was moved.”
This industrial tragedy highlights the extreme dangers inherent in the rapid infrastructure development of the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century. Labor protections and workplace safety standards were minimal, leaving individual workers to bear the human cost of the region's physical expansion.
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