The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-02-21
The Nest Disastrous Explosion
on Record.
IN A SOUTH AFRICAN CITY
About One Hundred Persons
Were Killed.
AND SOME 800 WE'RE INJURED
Thousands of the Poorer People of the
City Have Been Rendered Home
less by the Terrible
Calamity.

Calamity
johannesburg, South African Re
public, Feb Details reached this
city to-day Of what is probably the
most disastrous dynamite explosion
on record in any part Of the world
Thousands of people have been render
ed homeless by the terrible calamity,
about 100 persons are believed to have
been killed, some two or three hun
dred men, women and children have
been severely wounded, and many 9th
ers more or less injured
Viedendorp, the scene of the calami-
ty, is a suburb Of Johannesburg. In it
are huddled members of the poorer
classes Of whites of the Rand, Malayo,
Kaflirs and Cinnamon, who subsist for
the most part by doing odd jobs about
the place, which is a railway transfer
station for the mining districts of the
section.
There were eight freight cars loaded
with dynamite standing on the shunt
line at Viendendorp yesterday. The
coverings to protect it from the rain
and sun.
As evening was approaching, there
was an explosion near the freight
depot, so awful in the intensity of its
force that the ground for miles around
was convulsed as if by earthquake,
houses rocked and fell, masses of iron,
earth, stone, wood and human remains
were hurled skywards, the windows Of
almost every house at Johannesburg
were broken, and people were blown
through the air like straws before a
gust of wind.
The explosion had torn a hole 200
feet long and 50 feet wide over the spot
where the eight trucks of dynamite
stood The whole of that quarter of
johannesburg was literally blown to
pieces. The effects of the explosion
could be seen over radius Of more
than d mile, and almost everything
within q half mile Of the spot where
the trucks had been shunted for the
night, WAS raised from the ground.
On the ground were blachened heaps
of human remains-lilnbs, heads,
trunks, scorched and torn. The VIC
Tins were mostly Kaffirs and China
men, the whites being in a majority at
Niedendorp; but in spite of this, quite
4 number of white people, including
six girls, are among the many victims.
In fifteen minutes after the explos-
ion, the bodies of forty persons, dead,
All horribly mutiiated, were picked up.
Over 200 of theS1nost severely injured
persons were also carried away and
hundreds of other wounded persons
were taIen to places where they might
be cared for.
Ia addition to the wounded, thou
sands Of people rendered homeless by
the explosion, are being cared for by
tile charitable.
Every physician in or about Johan-
nesburg is assisting in the care Of the
wounded
The headquarters Of the Wanderers
Club is being used as mortuary
chamber. Ia the gaily decorated club
room arc horrible lines Of memberless,
blackened trunks Of human bodies,
rows Of chared arms and legs, crushed
and burned heads, hands, feet, pieces
Of flesh, etc, tied up in bags, the whole
presenting horrible sight. Around
the club and scene Of the explosion the
most narrowing scenes are witnessed.
Fathers, looking for their children,
wives staring blankly at what seems
to he the remains of husbands, the
living, many of them badly hurt them
selves, hunting for traces Of their dead.
Probably the best idea Of the force Of
the explosion can be gathered from the
fact that the iron aXles Of the trucks
upon which the dynamite was loaded,
have been dflsen 20 ieet into the hard
ground
How the explosion occmrcd Is lnt
known but belief prevails that a
thieying Kaflir found his way 70 the
shunted trucks and that in try ing 10
break open one Of che eases Of the eN-
plosive. being in ignorance Of what II
contained, brought about the lisaster
Most of the houses in Viedendorp
were built of corrugated iron, as is
usual in South Africa suburbs and Of
this material hardly a yestige remains
anywhere near the spot where the eX-
plosion took place.
A popular subscription has been
opened for the relief Of the wounded
and homeless. Already over 100000
have been raised.
The Beers and Uitlanders are work
ing harmoniously in the succoring Of
the wounded and homeless. The dis
aster seems to have done a great deal
towards healing the soreness which re-
NAMED from the Jameson raid, and
may do much to cement q new and bet
ter feeling between the foreign popu-
lation and their Boer rulers.
President Kruger has telegraphed
his sympathy with the people of johann
nesburg in this emergency, and is
being kept posted on all details of the
great calamity.