Sun Power Explosion

One of the city’s greatest disasters occurred January 31, 1895, when the Sun Electric & Power Company exploded. Located on the south side of the square behind the façade buildings, near what is now the Courier building, the damage was devastating and the injuries significant. The best description of the event comes from an article in the February 6, 1895 issue of the Washington News, so we present that here, in its entirety. Current editor’s notes are added in parentheses to help with reader perspective.)

BLOWN TO ATOMS.

Our Electric Light and Water Works Wrecked by an Explosion.

Three Men Badly Injured—The Wreck is Complete—Loss $10,000 or More

Between the hours of eight and nine o’clock, last Friday evening, the boiler of the Sun Electric Light & Power Company (located between Ipava State Bank and the Courier building) exploded with terrific force and blew the electric light and water plant to atoms. The two plants were under one roof, today they are scattered over a square mile of territory. The shock of the explosion was awful and scared our people nearly out of their senses. Three men besides the engineer were in the building at the time and all were seriously hurt. They were:

· ISAAC MCDONALD, shoulder broken, two ribs fractured, hip scalded and several severe scalp wounds.

· DAN DONAHUE, skull fractured, side scalded and numerous body bruises.

· DAN HUDDLESTON, eyes badly hurt, severe scalp wounds and slight internal injuries. In a very critical condition.

· ENGINEER WILLIAM SENCENBAUGH was blown twenty feet against the front door or entrance to the tower house, but he escaped with slight injuries.

How any of these men escaped with their lives is a miracle, as the building was blown into slivers and they are buried under tons of brick, mortar and wrecked machinery. It was a bitter cold night, the severest of the season, and very few people were on the streets at the time or the result to life and limb would have been much greater. The stores in the vicinity of the engine house were filled with people, and their first impression was that an earthquake was in progress. Buildings shook on their foundations, the electric lights went out, and following the report came a shower of brick and iron that wrought sad havoc with plate glass fronts and tin roofs. It was not long before the cause of the disturbance was learned and soon hundreds of willing hands were at work in an effort to rescue the men who went down with the shock and were buried under the debris.

Donahue was the first man found. He was covered with blood and mortar, and at the time unconscious. He was taken to a neighboring store and cared for, and then taken home where he soon regained consciousness. He is all broke up, but will recover. McDonald and Huddleston were found a few moments later. Both were covered with wounds from which the blood flowed freely, their ears, eyes, nostrils and mouth being filled with mortar and dirt. Both were unconscious. McDonald was taken to Sharp’s saloon (near current Holland’s Caramelcorn) where Dr. Welker attended the injuries and was afterwards taken home. Huddleston was carried to Benford’s grocery store (near the head of South Main where Martin Financial now resides) and laid on a bench, and upon the arrival of Dr. Griffith he was taken to the latter’s office where he was patched up and then taken home. His condition is critical, but the physician thinks he will pull through all right.

To add to the horror the wreck took fire and for a time it looked as though a general conflagration would follow. The alarm was sounded and the fire ladies responded, but through some mismanagement the hose refused to work and a bucket brigade succeeded in putting out the fire. When it became known that the men were all rescued and that all danger was passed, an inventory of the extent of damages was begun. One half of the large boiler was found three blocks east of the scene of the explosion and in the door yard of Chas. Fish (near Calvary Mennonite Church). How it ever got there no one knows. It weights nearly two tons and it seems impossible that it could have blown so far. But it did. It must have gone fifty feet in the air at the start and then took an easterly course, as no trace of its track can be found through the first block of its journey. In passing the residence of Fred Kehr it crashed through the tops of two large maple trees, cutting them off as clean as it could have been done with a saw. It scraped along the north side of his residence tearing away the gables and struck the ground fifty feet east of the residence, tearing out bushes and digging a huge hole in the frozen ground. It did not stop there, but mowed a clean swath for another block and finally lodged between a tree and fence on the Fish property. From Kehr’s to Fish it took everything that came in its path, fences, trees, a wagon, sleigh and other things being wrecked completely. The boiler flues were blown in all directions. Two were found in a hay loft near where the boiler landed. They also mowed everything in their way and crashed through the west side of the barn as if it had been built of paper. Two of the flues were found in front of Zinser’s hardware store (near the head of South Main where Martin Financial now resides) twisted into knots. Brick were hurled hundreds of feet into the air and fell all over the city, some of them falling on the roofs of adjoining buildings doing no end of damage to the roof and plastering below. Hundreds of windows were shattered by the concussion and many were wrecked by flying brick. The Danforth block (brick strip of buildings just south of Martin Financial) seemed to get the worst of it, many of the large plate glass fronts being ruined. Five red hot fire brick flew into the post office building, three into the room over the NEWS office carrying glass and sash with them, and another paid its respects to the Hopkins millinery shop. Another landed in the show window of Hops & S. and set fire to the contents. Before assistance came it had burned a pair of pants and several suits of underclothes. The bank also came in for its share of damage. The large plate glass fronts of Mostoller & Pfeiffer’s dry goods and cloth-store were ruined. They were hit in several places by flying misles [sic] and filled with large holes. Benford & Wehner’s front escaped with one broken glass, but the tin roof was cut to pieces, brick crashing through the roof and shattered the ceiling below. Zinser’s hardware store fared badly, the whole front being shattered and the side of the building injured. The roof also was badly damaged. Rapp & Harms (current location of Homespun) were the only firm on the north side of the square that sustained any damage, one of their large windows being broken. The south side came in for their share also. The rear end of the Birkett meat market (now Ipava State Bank) was blown into kindling wood, and the wonder is that any of the building is left as it butted up against the wrecked power house. Stormer’s grocery building (now Timbuk Tech) sustained the loss of windows and sash in the rear of the building and five large panes of glass in the front end besides a damaged roof. The adjoining saloon and Roehm’s store were slightly damaged. Every door in the old Cottage House was blown open and the yard is latterly filled with trash. Several large holes were made in the roof of the Kehr residence a block away, and one brick crashed through the west shutter and landed in the parlor breaking a rocker to pieces.

Wm. F. Roehm’s residence was slightly damaged by flues, two of his trees were broken off and the fence between him and Kehr leveled to the ground.

The public square is filled with rubbish and resembles a deserted brick yard.

Strange to say the brick stand pipe and iron tank stand intact. It stood within ten feet of the boiler and it is all that remains of what was one of the finest water works plants in this part of the state. The plant was put in six or seven years ago by the city at a cost of $15,000 and was a model plant. Later G. C. Danforth added an electric light plant at a cost of $8,000. Both occupied the same building and each had its own boiler. Danforth’s loss is complete while the city loses somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000. Mr. Danforth has already taken steps to rebuild and the city is doing likewise, but whether they will again jointly occupy the same building is a question that the council is going to consider. They will also consider the advisability of putting the power house in so close proximity to the business houses.

Several theories are advanced as to the cause of the explosion. A game of cards was in progress in the engine room at the time of the accident, and some intimate that the engineer allowed the water to get low while he was engrossed in a social game of cinch. Others say the boiler was defective and could not stand the dry gas heat. Then a few hold to the theory of natural gas explosion. This is hardly probably, for in that case both boilers would have suffered the same collapse. Engineer Sencebaugh says he had not been playing cards, but had just sat down to play a hand for a party who had gone out. That he had just inspected the machinery, that he had 105 pounds of steam and two-thirds of a boiler of water. The safety valve had been tested during the day, the steam gauge had also been examined and he can give no reason for the disaster other than that the boiler was defective and not strong enough to carry the amount of steam necessary to run the dynamo at its full capacity. Both boilers were tested by water pressure only a short time ago at a pressure of 125 pounds, fifteen to twenty pounds more than it ever used. Mr. Danforth has a guarantee from the company of whom he purchased the boiler and he proposes to have an examination made by experts, and if in their judgement it was defective he will try to make the company make good his loss.

The accident cut off the city’s supply of water for the time being, but Mayor Anthony and the water committee engaged Ebert Bro’s to do the pumping with their road engine, and as the tank, tower and both pumps are saved from the general wreck we were not without water very long. Electric light patrons will be compelled to go back to the oil lamps for a while, while the streets will be in darkness until such a time as the electric plant can be rebuilt.

It might be added that Mr. Sencenbaugh has been in charge of the plants ever since their construction and this is the first accident that has occurred. No one questions his fitness as an engineer. He has been at it for years and is considered a competent man. That accident is one of those mysterious things that no one can account for.