A thunderous blast rolled across Point San Pedro on June 17, 1899, so loud that some who heard it first mistook the sound for a patriotic salute marking Bunker Hill Day.
The truth was far more terrible.
At the United States Smokeless Powder Company’s factory near San Rafael, California, four tons of powder ignited inside the graining room. Within moments, a second explosion followed. Buildings splintered, mixing houses caught fire, and workers were thrown, burned, or struck down by flying debris.
By the time the flames were brought under control, four men were dead, three were badly injured, and six buildings lay in ruins. Investigators suspected that a single careless act inside the powder works may have set the disaster in motion.
Powder Factory Blows Up
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The United States Smokeless Powder Co.’s factory, situated on Point San Pedro, four miles from this town, was the scene of a disastrous explosion. As a result, four employees were killed and three seriously injured, while six buildings were demolished by the shock and the resultant flames.
The bodies of the dead, who are now at the morgue, are so mutilated as to be almost unrecognizable.
Killed — John Secumbe, John S. Reumbe, James M. Hennessy, M. Hollenbeck.
Injured — John Farrell, Henry Carroll, William Webster.
To the side igniting of the powder contained in the graining room, the disaster is due. A second explosion quickly followed the first, and soon the mixing houses were in flames and were entirely consumed.
The explosions were at first mistaken for the national salute at the military stations in honor of Bunker Hill day. About a year ago an explosion occurred at the works from a similar cause. The property damage today will not exceed $15,000.
It is surmised that the primary cause of the explosion was the carelessness of a workman who was smoking in the graining room, and it is conjectured that the offender was either Hollenbeck or Secumbe.
The quantity of smokeless powder which was involved in the explosion is estimated at four tons, and the concussion was tremendous.
Hennessy would have escaped with little or no injury is he had remained where he was at the time of the explosion. At the first premonition of the disaster, however, he started to run. As he reached the door he was struck by a piece of flying scantling from another building, the timber smashing his head to jelly.
Webster, one of the wounded men, was stripped of all his clothing except one shoe, and was horribly burned about the back. He will, however, recover, as will Farrell, who was blown a distance of about 100 feet, but whose bruises are slight.
Source: The Seattle Post Intelligencer. Seattle, Wash. June 18, 1899.
