1934 – Nov 12, Rohl-Connolly Granite Quarry Explosives Detonation, Avalon, CA  —    8-9

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 12-12-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

Blanchard note: We choose to show 8-9 deaths given that newspaper reports at the time that we have been able to locate show no more than eight deaths. However both the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Mine Rescue Association show nine deaths. If these sources are correct, then we must assume that an injured man died later.

–9  Bureau of Mines, U.S. Dept. of Interior. Major Disasters at Metal and Nonmetal Mines… p.19

–9  United States Mine Rescue Association. Mine Disasters in the United States. “Rohl-Connolly.”

–8  Watson. “Mysterious Island: Catalina’s Black Monday.” Catalina Islander, CA. 3-14-2014.

–7  Nevada State Journal, Reno. “7 killed in Catalina Explosion.” 11-13-1934.

            –Notes 1 “seriously injured” additionally.

Narrative Information

Watson. “Mysterious Island: Catalina’s Black Monday.” Catalina Islander, CA. 3-14-2014:

“….the morning of Monday, Nov. 12, 1934, was especially dreadful for a group of workers at Catalina’s East End rock quarry….

 

“Back in the 1930s, the East End quarry pretty much served the same purpose that it does today: providing rock and fill material for Southern California port construction projects.  Many of the breakwaters one sees in the Southland, in fact, are made up of Catalina rock from this quarry, including those that protect the waters of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

 

“On the Morning of Nov. 12, 1934, several workers in the employ of Rohl-Connolly (the forerunner of today’s Connolly-Pacific) were busy transferring highly explosive black powder from 25-pound cans into fabric sacks in preparation for the day’s blasting operations.  Once transferred to the sacks, the powder was then taken down into “coyote holes”—small tunnels bored into the rock—to be strategically placed.

 

“By the 1930s, after centuries of dealing with black powder, humans had learned a thing or two about dealing safely with this material.  Obviously, neither smoking nor any other kind of open flame was permitted near such operations.  But equally important were the precautions taken to avoid any kind of spark, even the seemingly harmless sparks caused by static electricity.

 

“According to the foreman on the job that day, Oscar Larson, all such precautions were in place.  ‘To avoid any friction that might occasion sparks,’ Larson told the Catalina Islander, ‘we were opening the cans (of powder) with pieces of wood, and all us wore swaddling about our shoes to avoid sparks resulting from our shoes striking rocks.’ Larson attested to the fact that there was ‘no fire nor smoking of any kind…’ at the site.

 

“But all their precautions failed to stop what happened next.  At almost exactly 11, a pickaxe wielded by a nearby worker struck one of the powder cans, sending a spark into the powder.

 

“The explosion was immediate and violent.  Flames shot 300 feet into the air and an ugly black cloud of smoke billowed and rolled along the mountainside.  Larson, the foreman, barely escaped death by leaping into the ocean after his clothes were ignited.

 

“But eight other men weren’t so lucky.  A 22-year-old man named Marion Hall was killed instantly and seven other men were burned to death in the ensuing conflagration or died later of their injuries….

 

“In addition to Hall, the seven other dead and their ages included [We place in separate lines.]

 

Kenneth Ernest Smith, 22;

Angel Hernandez, 28;

Herman Bermudes, 33;

Tom Halborson, 51;

Manuel Flores, 20;

Russell Landers, 49; and

Peter Hansen, 56.”

 

Nov 13, Nevada State Journal, Reno (in U.S. Mine Rescue Association):

 

“Avalon, Catalina Island, Cal., Nov. 12. — (UP) — Seven workmen were burned to death and one other injured seriously today in an explosion of 900 cans of blasting powder at a seashore rock quarry here.

 

The dead:

  • Marion Paul, 23
  • Kenneth Ernest Smith, 23
  • Angel Hernandez, 37
  • Herman Bermudas, 37
  • Peter Hansen, 38
  • Manuel Flores, 20
  • Russell Lauders, all of Avalon
  • John Halverson, suffered third degree burns

“Paul was killed almost instantly when a spark, caused by a pick-axe striking a powder can, touched off the powder as the workmen were transferring it from cans to sacks for blasting purposes.

 

“Smith died in a hospital an hour later, and then one by one the others succumbed to the burns, despite the efforts of a corps of doctors and nurses rushed by plane from Wilmington, across the channel on the mainland.

 

“The men were employed on the Rohl-Connolly quarry. (Nevada State Journal, Reno. “7 killed in Catalina Explosion.” 11-13-1934.)

 

Sources

 

Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior. Major Disasters at Metal and Nonmetal Mines and Quarries in the United States (Excluding Coal Mines). Information Circular 7493, April 1949. Accessed 12-12-2024 at: file:///C:/Users/Wayne/Downloads/cdc_161398_DS1.pdf

 

Watson. Jim. “Mysterious Island: Catalina’s Black Monday.” Catalina Islander, CA. 3-14-2014. Accessed 12-12-2024 at: https://thecatalinaislander.com/mysterious-islandcatalinas-black-monday/

 

Nevada State Journal, Reno. “7 killed in Catalina Explosion.” 11-13-1934. Accessed 12-12-2024 at: https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/rohl_news_only.htm

 

United States Mine Rescue Association. Mine Disasters in the United States. “Rohl-Connolly Granite Quarry Explosives Detonation, Avalon, November 12, 1934.” Accessed 12-12-2024 at: https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/rohl_news_only.htm