Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-05-15
EASTERN EVENTS.
Seventeen I thousand Pounds
of Giant Powder Exploded.
TERRIBLE THUNDERBOLT WRECK
Winter Lingers in the Region of the
Lakes-Fishers Killed by
Dynamite.
lAssociated Press Dispatches TO the HERALD.

tAss0ciated Press Dispatches TO the HERALD.
FOUNTAIN, Colo., May IA horrible
railway casualty occurred here at 2 :45
this morning. At 2 al the north bound
Thunderbolt stopped at the station for
orders. She had hardly come to q
standstill when caboose with four
loaded freight cars, which had broken
away from through freight at Colorado
Springs, thirteen miles away, came DASH
ing down the long grade at lightning
speed, crashing int9 the express, and
piling tie caboose. ~@and first car
into ruins on top of the engine
and baggage car. The car next to the
caboose was alarge tank Of naptha, which
being wrecked scattered the oil over the
depot, cars and adjoining buildings,
caught fire, and in an instant everything
was sheet of flames. The engineer
and fireman escaped somewhst injured.
The Pullman and two day passenger
coaches were hastily detached from the
burning baggage car and ran down the
track to q safe distance from the fire,
which had now enveloped the depot, and
was rapidly approaching car of runaway
freight, when the alarm was given that
this car was
LOADED WITH POWDER
And for everyone to run for bis life. All
who heard the warning attempted to
obey, but had gone but short distance
when 1900 pounds Of giant powder
with which the car was loaded exploded,
shaking the earth as though an earth
quake. Twenty houses in the city were
almost totally destroyed, together with
the new Baptist Church which
was blown from it's foundation and
scattered over acres OF ground. Men
and women were knocked senseless and
pieces Of broken rails, Car wheels and
timbers were carried with terrific force
for half mile. number of freight
cars standing on the side track were
blown to atoms. The passengers in the
Thunderbolt were severely shaken up
and number cut bypieces of glass from
the windows, but none were seriously
injured. The yard Of the Newton Lum-
Der Company took fire and was COM
pletely destroyed. People standing a
quarter of mile from the explosion
we're hit by flying fragments and badly
wounded.
THE DEAD.
The dead are G. F. Smith, Manager
of the Newton Lumber Company. He
was trying to extinguish the flames at
the depot when the explosion occurred,
and badly wounded; he died in an hour.
A piece OF iron was blown through his
body, making hole two inches in diam
eter. The burned remains Of an unknown
man were found underneath the engine
after the fire was extingnished. Law
renee Weichart, German carpenter,
while assisting to put out the fire at the
lumber yard, was struck on the head by
a flying bolt and died in two hours.
II. Hutchins, merchant sixty years old,
was standing in a door some distance
away, and was struck by q bar of iron |;
he died this afternoon. The wounded
number about thirty, none of them will
die, although all are painfully injured.
The losspto the town, which is completely
ruined, is estimated at 500, 600, while the
amount Of the railroad company's loss is
variously estimated at from $75, 5000 to
100000. All the wounded are residents
of this place, except w. Knight, of St.
Louis, and j. G. Mum, of Arizona, who
had their faces badly cut.