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During 1940 the High Explosives plant at
Kenvil, NJ had been increasing production to meet the needs of the US
Armed Forces as well as our Allies involved in the war in Europe. The
Kenvil munitions plant was one of several in northwest New Jersey,
originally opened in 1871 to provide dynamite to the local Iron Mines.
The Kenvil facility was
located in Roxbury Township, Morris County, and was owned by the
Hercules Company, a spin-off from DuPont, who operated several other
chemical & munitions
plants in New Jersey. Covering over 1,200 acres, dozens of major
buildings processed various types of high explosives, employing hundreds
of local residents who worked the various shifts at the plant. Accidents
had occurred over the years at the plant, with 2 explosions in 1934
killing a total of 6 workers.
Here is the entry for
"Kenvil" in a New Jersey Guidebook published in 1939:
KENVIL, (720 feet
alt., 1,000 pop.), formerly known as McCainville, advertises itself as
the "Home of America's Oldest Continuously Operating Dynamite
Plant" – the HERCULES POWDER Co. PLANT, founded 1871. Two major
explosions brought the plant into the headlines in 1934. On March 8,
four workers were killed in a packing-house blast that broke every pane
of window glass in neighboring towns and shook a marine observation
tower at Sandy Hook, 50 miles east. A sign was erected at the factory
gate announcing that the accident was the first in 180 days, and that
there had been no serious explosion on the grounds for 14 years. Five
months later a detonation in the smokeless powder unit killed two men
and injured three. The E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co. has had a large
interest in Hercules.
At 1:30 PM on September 12, 1940 over 297,000 pounds of gunpowder blew
up in a series of explosions and fires, leveling over 20 buildings. The
explosions shook the area so forcefully that cars were bounced off the
roads, most windows in homes miles away were broken and articles flew
off shelves and walls.
The explosions were felt as far away as Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and were
picked-up by the seismograph at Fordham University in New York, about 50
miles east of Kenvil. Not only were windows broken, but telephone wires
were torn apart from their poles. Many windows in both Roxbury and
Wharton high schools were shattered. Some told of High School students
whose fathers worked at the Powder works, suddenly realizing what had
happened, shrieking and running out of the building to the Plant to
check on loved ones.
Of course, the worst part was the loss of life. In all, 51 workers died
as a result of the disaster, with over 200 injured and burned. The
victims were brought to Dover General Hospital which was so overwhelmed
that many individuals were just laid out on the front lawn of the
Hospital, awaiting help. Victims were brought in laying in the back of
pickup trucks and cars. Not only were most Doctors and Nurses from
neighboring facilities called to assist, but Nursing Students from
around the area spent weeks attending to burn patients. Even older Boy
Scouts were used to find family members and relay messages.
Ultimately the facility
would be rebuilt and reopened in April 1941 to go on to produce munitions for World War Two as
well as Rocket propellant and other products. By 1958, the Cold War was
in full swing, and the Hercules Kenvil plant worked on materials for the
Minuteman Missile. Smaller explosions continued through the 1950's and
60's, taking over a dozen additional lives. More recently, a 1989 blast injured 20
workers and shattered glass for miles and in 1994, a machine mixing 500
pounds of nitroglycerin went up -- sending four workers to the hospital
and showering the company parking lot with scraps of hot metal.
Operations at the facility ceased in 1996, the land is now fenced off
and gated. Plans are being made for future uses for the large plot, with
some sites needing remediation for contaminants left behind.
On September 5, 2005, a Memorial Service was held to honor the memory of
the 51 people who perished 65 years earlier, and to dedicate a plaque
with their names, and the names of others who died at Hercules Kenvil
Works from 1917 onward. The plaque shown below is near the Memorial Garden at Horseshoe Lake Park, Succasunna, NJ.
Still unanswered is the real cause of the fatal 1940 explosion:
Industrial Accident or Nazi Spies?
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For several days the disaster
remained the major story in the area, with this issue of the New York
Daily News reporting on the earliest developments. Over coming days the
newspaper would run many pages of photos showing the carnage. |
