Kingsland explosion

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Kingsland explosion
Part of World War One
A view of a section of the Canadian Car and Foundry Company's Plant, Kingsland, New Jersey, after the fire and explosions of January 11, 1917 (International Film Service, Inc.)
Location	Lyndhurst, New Jersey, United States
Date	January 11, 1917
Attack type	Sabotage, state-sponsored terrorism
Deaths	0
Injured	0
Perpetrators	Imperial German agents
Motive	sabotage

The Kingsland explosion was an incident that took place during World War I at a munitions factory in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, United States, on January 11, 1917. An arbitration commission in 1931 determined that, "In the Kingsland Case the Commission finds upon the evidence that the fire was not caused by any German agent."^[1] However, in 1953, Germany paid $50 million ($570 million in 2024) in reparations to the United States.

The Canadian Car and Foundry Company, based in Montreal, had signed large contracts with Russia and Britain for delivery of ammunition. An enormous factory was constructed in the New Jersey Meadowlands, which was then referred to as Kingsland. The company executives decided not to take any chances with security for their plant. They constructed a 6-foot-high (1.8 m) fence around the plant and hired security guards to conduct 24-hour patrols around the perimeter and screen each worker as they entered the plant. It was located on the site of Lyndhurst's present industrial park. A brick stack, believed to be the remaining part of the Foundry, is located in the area bounded by Valley Brook Avenue, Polito Avenue, and the office buildings on Wall Street West.

On January 11, 1917, a fire started in Building 30 of the Canadian Car and Foundry Company at Kingsland in Bergen County, New Jersey. In four hours, probably 500,000 pieces of 3-inch (76 mm) explosive shells were discharged.^[2] The entire plant was destroyed.^[3] It was said to have been a spectacle more magnificent than the nearby 1916 explosion at Black Tom. From office buildings and tall apartments, people in New York City watched with amazement.