1924 – Jan 28, natural gas leak suffocations & explosion, Cumberland Hill, Manville RI –15
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-31-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–15 Barr. “The official narrative…Manville Explosion…” The Valley Breeze, RI. 1-25-2024.
–15 Fitchburg Sentinel, MA. “15 Dead as Explosion Wrecks House,” Jan 28, 1924.
–15 Kokomo Daily Tribune, IN. “Fifteen Persons Killed.” February 1, 1924.
Narrative Information
Barr: “….Around 5 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 28, 1924, 10-year-old Lillian Conway was awoken by a headache and a strange smell. According to newspaper reports, Lillian, her mother Sarah, 48, her father Michael, 45, and her brothers Thomas, 21, and William Emmett, 20, had been feeling ill for several days. Allegedly, they thought a leaking natural gas line was to blame. As Sarah and her sons tended to Lillian’s headache, the rest of the family also began to feel the effects of the gas, Sarah told The Boston Globe in 1924.
“Kerosene lamp in hand, Michael, a former Cumberland police officer, descended into the basement of their Mount Pleasant View Avenue, Cumberland, home to shut off the gas.
“Then came an explosion so powerful and loud that residents 20 miles away claimed to have heard it. Newspapers across the entire U.S. and into Canada covered the resulting devastation.
….
“All of the Conways survived the actual explosion, but were trapped and caught by falling timbers and debris.
….
“While the Conway family, with the exception of Michael [the father], survived the initial blast, the Hamel family wasn’t as fortunate. The Hamels lived on the other side of the duplex, the home being one of several company houses owned by the Manville Jenckes Mill Company.
“The Hamel family was made up of two parents, 11 children, and one young female boarder named Appauline Dancouse (spelling varies from publication to publication).
….
“Officials from the Blackstone Valley Gas and Electric Light Company told the public and news sources that the explosion was caused by dynamite, not natural gas as the Conways had suspected. The gas company said Adelard Hamel had a large quantity of dynamite stored in his basement, since he worked on the Louisquisset Pike road gang blasting tree stumps, and that dynamite was the catalyst for the wreckage.
“According to a 1999 Breeze article, an official statement from the Blackstone Valley Gas and Electric Light Company read, ‘an explosion of this magnitude couldn’t be caused by only gas… The worst that could happen would be for the windows or walls to be blown outward.’
“A 1924 Globe article stated that the Conways denied the company’s statement, sharing how sick they had been from the gas leading up to the explosion. The family also said that a governor on the gas main leading to the cellar (where the supply pipe attaches to the meter) blew out in summer 1923, and was fixed but not to their satisfaction. Two weeks before the explosion, the Conways said the gas main blew out again, and once again was haphazardly repaired.
“Despite the family’s protests, the dynamite story traveled almost as quickly as the explosion happened, with newspapers repeating the gas company’s tale that the dynamite was the definitive cause of the blast.
….
“Following the funeral, hearse after hearse lined up to transport the 13 Hamels and the one boarder to St. James cemetery, where they were to be placed in a vault until the ground could thaw. The frozen earth delayed their burial, but this ended up helping investigators to discover the true cause of the explosion.
“According to an archived Pawtucket Times article, Attorney Gen. Herbert Carpenter sensed something was amiss. He ordered an investigation of the site of the explosion, and ordered the Hamel bodies to be removed from the Mapleville funeral home for further testing.
“The attorney general’s office said there was actually no evidence of dynamite, and that leaking gas was the sole reason for the catastrophe. The extreme cold weather of Jan. 27 into Jan. 28 forced the Hamel and Conway families to tightly seal their home, worsening the impacts of the gas and the subsequent explosion….‘A mixture of gas with the air can be of such a nature so to cause an explosion which does the damage found at the scene,’ read the AG’s report.
“Medical examiners found that all 14 members of the Hamel household were sick, and that most if not all of them had already succumbed to the gaseous fumes, dying of asphyxiation before the explosion happened. These were the same fumes that woke Lillian up the morning of the blast….” (Barr, Sofia. “The official narrative that went boom: Manville Explosion happened 100 years ago this week.” The Valley Breeze, RI. 1-25-2024.)
Newspapers At The Time
Jan 28, Fitchburg Sentinel: “Pawtucket, R.I., Jan 28 (By Associated Press) – Fifteen persons met their death in an explosion or by asphyxiation in a double cottage at Cumberland Hill, Manville, early today.
“In one of the houses, occupied by Michael Conway and his wife, two sons and a daughter, Emmett, one of the sons, after awakening went to his mother’s room and complained about the odor of gas. With his brother Thomas, he proceeded to the cellar to investigate. As they opened the cellar door a light in a hallway evidently ignited the gas and the explosion followed. The building was practically destroyed. Mrs. Conway and her daughter and the two Conway boys were severely cut and bruised, and the dead body of the father, Michael Conway, who had been asleep, was later found in the cellar.
“In the adjoining house the family of Adelard Hamel, consisting of his wife, six sons and five daughters, resided. When the neighbors went in search of them they found six of the dead bodies and they believe the others are buried in the ruins.
“The Hamel family had lived in this section only a few weeks and were comparatively unknown.
“Dr. Marshall, medical examiner, who viewed the bodies that have been recovered, is of the opinion that the death in each case was caused by asphyxiation before the explosion, which was followed by fire.
The names of the dead are:
Michael Conway, 45, former Cumberland police officer.
Adelard Hamel, 55, father of the Hamel family.
Marie Louise Hamel, 46, mother of the Hamel family.
Antoine Hamel, 21.
Arthur Hamel, 20.
Rose Marie Hamel, 18.
Leonille Hamel, 16.
Yvonnie Hamel, 15.
Richard Hamel, 14.
Armandine Hamel, 13.
Fernando Hamel, 12.
Gliard Hamel, 7.
Lucerne Hamel, 5.
Lucien Hamel, 2.
Miss Apolline Dancour, 16, board4r in the Hamel family
“The other bodies were recovered later in the day, as was the body of Apolline Dancour, a young woman who went to the Hamel home last night as a boarder.
“The detonation was heard 20 miles from the scene of the explosion. This is accounted for by the fact that Adelard Hamel was engaged as a wood chopper and had stored some dynamite in the cellar. Hundreds of windows within a radius of a half mile were shattered and many houses were shaken.
“Michael Conway, one of the victims was found wedged in the debris after the explosion. His sons attempted to rescue him, but he ordered them to give their attention to their mother and sister, and while they were doing so the father’s body fell into the cellar, which was a mass of flame.” (Fitchburg Sentinel, MA. “15 Dead as Explosion Wrecks House,” January 28, 1924, pp. 1 & 8.)
Feb 1, Kokomo Daily Tribune: “Dynamite used for wood cutting exploded, wrecking two-family home of Michael Conway and Addard Hamel in Manville, R.I. Fifteen persons lost their lives.” (Kokomo Daily Tribune. Feb 1, 1924.)
Sources
Barr, Sofia. “The official narrative that went boom: Manville Explosion happened 100 years ago this week.” The Valley Breeze, RI. 1-25-2024. Accessed 3-31-2025 at: https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/the-official-narrative-that-went-boom-manville-explosion-happened-100-years-ago-this-week/article_26ae843a-b959-11ee-a08e-c7df1d7d9723.html
Fitchburg Sentinel, MA. “15 Dead as Explosion Wrecks House,” 1-28-1924, p. 1. Accessed 3-31-2025 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/fitchburg-sentinel-jan-28-1924-p-1/
Kokomo Daily Tribune, Kokomo, IN. “Fifteen Persons Killed.” 2-1-1924. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewerTags.aspx?img=113436225&firstvisit=true&src=search¤tResult=0