A Delayed Blast Kills Four on the Railroad Grade Near Ellensburg
A charge that hung fire exploded as workers returned to the rock, killing four men and fatally injuring foreman Walker in one of the season’s worst construction accidents.
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.
A terrible explosion occurred on the railroad grade at No. 1, fifteen miles from Ellensburg, Thursday morning. A blast was lighted, but no explosion followed. The drills were set to work again on the rock, and the men were preparing to resume when the blast went off. The cry was: 'Fire or double and run!' The men were not in time. The explosion caused the death of four men and fatal injury to the foreman, Mr. Walker, who was blown into the air and into the river, and died shortly afterward. Two laborers were buried under the rock, and two others received a deadly and injurious bath.
“When the blast went off, the cry was 'Fire or double and run!' The men were not in time.”
Railroad building in 1880s Washington was brutally dangerous work, with delayed charges, cave-ins and primitive safety practices. A single hung fire could wipe out a crew in seconds. Modern workplace-safety rules grew out of exactly this kind of preventable industrial death.
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