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Nekoosa Mill Explosion Claims Two Lives

EMIL FREIBERG,
MICHAEL KIRST,
BLAST VICTIMS

TRAGEDY IS RESULT OF UNEXPLAINED
ACCIDENT TO
ALKALINE HEATER IN SULPHATE
DEPARTMENT.

Michael Kirst jr., 44, and Emil
Freiberg, 31, were instantly killed
shortly after 7 o'clock this morning
when a heater operating with one
of the digesters in the sulphate
section of the Nekoosa-Edwards
Paper company mill at Nekoosa,
exploded from causes unknown.
Kirst, employed as a sulphate
cook, and Freiberg, a mill wright,
though not connected with the depart-
ment in which the accident occurred,
happened to be passing
through the room into which the
heavy cylindrical heater crashed.
The force of the concussion may
have caused their deaths aside from
other possible causes. The bodies
of the two men were found at the
foot of a concrete stairway leading
out of the room...
--Explosion Unexplained--
Officials at the mill this morning
were unable to offer any reasons
for the explosion, but said an in-
vestigation would be made. The
heater had been operating since 6
a. m. Ordinarily no men are at
work in the room where two heaters
to the digesters are in operation.
It was at first feared that a
third man, Ignatz Roller, had met
the same fate as Kirst and Freiberg,
and a search for his body
was instituted in the wreckage.
Later it was discovered that he
was safe in his own department of
the mill, and had not been near the
scene of the tragedy at the time.
--Crashes Through Floor--
When the explosion was heard
men working in adjoining departments
quickly shut off the steam
which operates the heaters. A
small amount of pulp which was
being fed through pipes, broken in
the explosion, was forced backwards
and fell to the lower floor.
The main damage was to the
heater itself. It is cylindrically
shaped, seated on a concrete base
on a balcony overlooking the floor
below. Its weight is about five
tons and it stands possibly ten feet
in height and several feet in diameter.
The huge cylinder was
torn off not at the point where it
is bolted to the base, but several
inches lower. The concrete floor
onto which it fell broke like plaster,
the steel supporting girders giving
way in a manner which would indicate
that the heater had been
raised some feet into the air and
struck the supporting concrete floor
with terrific crushing force in its
downward path. The heater sup-
plies the alkaline liquid necessary
in the work of the digesters.
--Blast Moves Digester--
When the steam and fumes had
sufficiently settled workmen en-
tered the room and removed the
two men. Further
examination showed that the explosion
had moved one of the two
digesters several yards distant
more than an inch on its base. An
estimate of the physical damage
done to that department of the mill
had not been made this morning
and possibly would not be definitely
determined until the work of replacing
damaged parts has begun.
Michael Kirst jr. whose age is
reported as 44 years, has been in
the employ of the Nekoosa-Edwards
company for a number of years.
He is survived by his widow and
six children the oldest being 12
years and the youngest an infant
6 months old. Their names are
Barbara, George, Dorothy, Margaret,
Lucille and Joyce.
Emil Freiberg, whose age is
given as 31 years, was born in
Merrill, Wis., and has been employed
at the Nekoosa mill since
1918. Besides his widow he is survived
by a daughter Gladys, age 9,
and a son Herald, age 7.
excerpt from Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin; Monday, December 12, 1927