The Explosion that Rocked Beacon

The blast knocked children readying for school off their feet. Windows were blown out. Chimneys toppled from roofs. Dishes jumped off shelves and shattered on kitchen floors. Peaches dropped from their trees all in one fell swoop ... and that morning it sounded like the world had exploded like a bomb. The date was September 17, 1924, and the Joseph Chiarella Fireworks Company had suddenly and accidentally blown up. Almost the entire east end of Beacon had been damaged to some degree by the shock waves of the blast. Even across the Hudson the people of Newburgh had felt the concussion. Chiarella's Fireworks was located at 305 East Main Street at the foot of Mount Beacon in a field not far from the base of the Mount Beacon Incline. On the morning of September 17th, worker Louis Fabiano was filling shells with gunpowder, when, it was theorized, his metal scooping spoon created a spark that ignited 1000 pound of gunpowder. Fabiano was found about 100 feet away from his work station. He was badly burned and full of wood splinters and would die later that day at Highland Hospital from his injuries. The owner Joseph Chiarella escaped with only minor burns and injuries.

Hundreds of homes were damaged from the blast. Estimates of the costs were in the tens of thousands of dollars. Angry homeowners, who argued the fireworks company should not have been allowed to operate within Beacon, sued the city for damages. The city council quickly passed an ordinance forbidding fireworks to be manufactured within city limits. Undaunted, Joseph Chiarella moved his factory outside of Beacon to Chelsea and continued to make fireworks for decades after. And a generations of Beaconites never forgot that day that Beacon blew up.

Postscript in Deja Vu: In October of 1970, an explosion blew up the fireworks factory in Chelsea and the owner, Joseph Chiarella, age 75 and a veteran fireworks maker for 58 years, was killed.