The herald., 1896-02-21
TWENTY TONS OF DYNAMITE
Wreck all the Houses in Vie.
dendorp
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DEAD
And Other Hundreds Are Fatally or
Painfully Wounded
The Ground Is Uttered With Fragments Of
.Dismembered Bodes-Work Of Aid
Ing the Homeless

Associated Press Special Wire.
JOHANNESBURG, South African republic,
Feb. 2O.-Details are reaching this city to-
day of what is probably the most disas-
trous dynamite explosion on record in any
part of the world.
Thousands of people have been rendered
homeless by the terrible calamity. About
100 are believed to have been killed, 200
or 800 men, women and children severely
wounded, and many others more or less
Injured.
viedendorp, the scene of the calamity, is
a suburb of Johannesburg. In it are hud-
died numbers of the poorer classes of
whites, Malays, Kaffirs and Cinnamon,
who subsist for the most part by doing
add jobs about the place. which is a rail-
way transfer station for the mining dis
tricts. Among the freight cars standing at
viedendorp yesterday we're three trucks
loaded with dynamite hidden under can-
vas coverings to protect it from rain and
sun. As evening was approaching there
was an explosion near the freight depot
so awful in intensity that the ground for
miles around was convulsed as If by an
earthquake; houses rocked and fell; mass
es Of iron, earth, stone, wood and human
remains were hurled skyward Windows
in almost every house at Johannesburg
were broken, and people blown through
the air like straws before gust of wind.
The explosion had torn a hole 200 fees
long and 80 feet wide over the spot where
the eight trucks Of dynamite stood but
few minutes before. All that quarter
of Johannesburg was literally blown to
pieces. The effect of the explosion could
be seen over radius of more than a
mile. and almost everything within half
mile of where the trucks had been shut
for the night was razed TO the ground and
crushed by the dynamite beyond redemp-
tion.
Iron work was twisted and torn, stones
destroyed und brick work pulverized. On
the ground were the blackened shapes of
human remains, limbs. heads, trunks,
scorched and torn. The victims were
mostly Malays, kafflrs and Cinnamon,
the whites being in a minority at Vieden-
dorp, but quite number of white people,
minutes after the explosion the bodies of
forty dead persons, horribly mutilated,
were picked up and carried away, while
searching of the ruins continued without
internlssion. Over 200 OF the most se-
vereiy injured persons were also carried
away, and hundreds of others taken to
places where they might be cared for.
The headquarters of the Wanderers
club Is being used as mortuary chamber.
In the gaily decorated club room are hor-
rible lines of memberless, blackened
trunks of human bodies, rows of charred
arms and legs, crushed and burned heads,
hands, feet, pieces of flesh, ETC., tied up in
bags, the whole presenting a sight as
bloodcurdling as was ever witnessed.
Around the club and scene of the ex-
pioson, the most narrowing scenes were
witnessed by fathers looking for their
children. wives staring blankly at what
seemed to be 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 truck upon
which the dynamite vas loaded have been
driven twenty fest into the hard ground.
How the explosion occurred is not
known, but belief prevails that a thiev-
ing Kaffir found his way to the shunted
trucks and that, in trying to break open
one of the cases of the explosive, being
iii ignorance of what it contained, he
brought obout the disaster which has
caused SO great loss of life and which
rendered so many people homeless and
penuiless.
never be known. 1t is definitely known,
however, that 100 persons have been
killed and about 100 wounded severely.
In addition it is estimated that over 100
more have been less severely injured. Sew
eral of the injured have since died. All
the hospitals are filled with sufferers from
the explosion and many private houses
have been turned into refugees for the
homeless.
Most of the houses in Viedendorp were
built of corrugated iron, as is usual in
South Africa suburbs, and of this material,
any where near the spot where the eXplo-
sion took place, hardly a vestige remains.
popular subscription has been opened
for the relief of the wounded and home-
less. Already over 100000 has been
raised, and this amount will reach $780,
600 before night. In addition, steps have
already been taken to clear away the debris
from the ground and portion of the
money subscribed will be invested in
building materials, and the work of recon-
structing Viedendrop will be commenced
as soon as the remains of the dead are in
inferred, which will probably be tomorrow,
and the occasion will be marked by
turnout of almost the whole population of
Johannesburg.
The Beers and the Uitlanders are work
ing fharInoniously in the succoring of the
wounded and homeless. The disaster
seems to have done great deal toward
healing the soreness which remained from
the Jameson raid and may do much to ce-
ment new and better feeling between the
foreign population aud the Beer rulers,
President Krueger has telegraphed his
sympathy with the people of Johannes
burg in this emergency, and he is being
kept posted on all the details of the great
calamity.
The amount Of dynamite which caused
tile terrific disaster is ascertaiped TO nave
been twenty tons. This had been standing
on the railway switch for period of three
days exposed to the sun and air, and this is
supposed to have put it into the condition
i'll which its constitution was very unstable,