The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-11-09
THE EXPLOSION.
Further Particulars Of the Disas-
ter at Santander.
At Least Five Hundred Lives Were Lost
Hundreds in Santander Driven Insane
by the Dynamite Explosion-Loss
Two Millions and a Half.

MADRID, Nov. 6.-An eyewitness of
the terrible disaster at Santander says
that the dynamite on board the Cabo
Machichaco was concealed under the
iron which formed portion of her
cargo The fire, the eyewitness says,
is believed to have originated in
some packages of skins which were
crammed into the steamers bunk
ers. When the fire broke out the
captain of the transatlantic steamer
Alfonso XII. ordered his steam
launch to be lowered and manned by
nearly all his officers and crew, whom
he sent to the assistance of the burning
steamer. The steam launch, with the
crew of the Alfonso XII on board, ar
rived alongside the Cabo Machichaco
just moment before the latter vessel
blew up, and consequently they were
blown to atoms with the crew of the
dynamite steamer. Continuing, he
says:
The explosion was like an earth
quake. A shower of burning fragments
fell upon the houses, which were al
ready tottering, crushing in the roofs,
while heavy pieces of iron were hurled
the violence of cannon shots. Houses
were Immediately ignited by the
blazing timbers which fell upon
them, and the people who were not
killed rushed in terror into the streets,
where number of them met death or
were severely crushed or wounded by
falling houses. Others ran in terror
from the scene, and hundreds went
mad with fear, and, abandoning the
city, ran into the fields shrieking hys-
terically and tearing their hair with
fury. Many thought the end of the
world had come. A number of the most
frenzied people ran from Santander
into the neighboring villages, spread
ing, in incoherent words, the news of
the disaster, refusing to return to the
Inflated city, even when assured that
all danger was over. Others. after re-
covering from the shock, fastened to
the scene of the disaster in order to
search for the missing relatives whom
they believed to have met death
through the explosion. Upon arriving
at the scene of wreck and carnage
they found the place covered with dead
and wounded, many of the victims being
so horribly burned and mutilated that
their recognition by relatives was ut
terly impossible. The ground near the
quay and promenade was strewn with
mutilated bodies, heads and severed
limbs while all around were houses in
roaring flames, the air being thick with
smoke and pieces of burning material.
The bodies of men, women and chill
dren of all classes were found in horri-
BILE medlev, blackened, burned and
torn in the most heartrending manner.
''There were many miraculous escapes
from death; for instance, a man was
thrown great distance by the eXplo-
sion, and yet he was only slightly in
jured by the shock sustained through
the fail. Another man was thrown into
the sea by the force of the explosion,
and though the disaster occurred at
about 4:30 p m this man was rescued
from the water at 10 o'clock the same
night, benumbed and stupefied but
alive. On Saturday morning following
the awful night of fire and death a
number of people who had been shocked
into state of imbecility or madness
were found hiding beneath the ruins.
Crowds of orphans Saturday gath
cred at the town hall bewailing their
lost mothers or fathers, and asking for
assistance in the search they had been
making among the ruins for the bodies
of their loved ones. For long time
to come the city Of Santander will need
assistance from other cities in order to
succor the homeless and wounded, to
bury the dead and to repair as far as
possible the damage done by the awful
dynamite upheavel.
The pecuniary loss by the fire at San
tander is estimated at S2,500,000. Ac-
cording to official kilograms the latest
accounting shows that 800 persons were
killed and $50 wounded.
The burning debris set fire to the
railway station at Solares, thirteen
miles distant from Santander.