Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-03-10
Twenty Lives Lost and Others
Injured by Exploding
OIL Tanks.
FATAL SHOOTING IN DENVER
A Cyclone Sweeps Over Queens
land Leaving Deadly
Track.
WELL KNOWN WRITER DIES

CLEAN, N. Y, March 10.-FrOm
eighteen to twenty lives were lost and
fully twice that number burned or
bruised by an explosion of oil late last
night, following a wreck on the Erie
railroad north of this city. Owing to
the fact that some bodies were burn
ed or blown into the creek by the
explosion the exact number of the
dead will probably not be known for
several days. The number of injured
is uncertain as many were able to
reach their homes.
Known dead: Norman Brown, John
Tobin, John McReady, John McMa-
hon.
All four boys were about sixteen
years old. M. v. Driscoll, Walter
Swift, John Stemlinger. Harry God
den and Richard Connell, six uniden-
titled bodies. are at Woodward's un-
dertaking rooms. A boy was blown
into the creek and a drowned body
not recovered Two or more unknown
persons, whose bodies were incinerat-
ed in the burned wreckage. Scenes
following the explosion will never be
forgotten by those who saw them.
It. was about 9 o'clock in the even
ing when the train was wrecked.
The Erie freight, west bound, broke
in two two miles north of the city.
Brakes were applied and the first por-
tion brought almost to a standstill at
the bridge across Olean Creek. The
rear cars gathering momentum as
tank cars and were filed with re-
they came down the hill crashed into
the front cars. Most of the cars were
fined oil or gasoline The cars weigh
ed thousands of tons and the impact
was terrific. One of the tank cars
caught fire soon after the collision.
The exact cause of the fire is not
known, but it is supposed to have
started from a spark struck from
grinding pieces of iron in the wreck.
In few minutes another car of gas
Oline caught fire and burst into flames
with a terrific report. A portion of
the iron domes of the car were hurl-
ed distance of several hundred feet.
In this early accident, as far as can
be learned, no one was injured. Hun
dreds of people from the surrounding
cnuutrv Cathorod RI wafch tho hriI-
liant flames. For two hours people
stood massed together and as the
heat became less intense the crowd
began to edge little closer to the
wreckage until about 1 o'clock some
venturesOme boys approached to with
in few hundred feet. Suddenly there
was terrific explosion. Great masses
of flames shot into the air and liter
ally rolled down the banked sides of
the track in to the gully where the
spectators were standing. Men and
boys fell before the wave of white
light to rise no more. Huge piers of
iron were hurled through the air,
moving down human beings by the
score. Some managed to scramble to
their feet and get away, but others
lay still in death. The scene of agony
and horror at that moment was be-
yond description. A vertiable rain of
Men and boys with their clothing a
mass of flames ran shrieking down
the track, some of them falling to the
ground unconscious, while others
grovelled in the ditch or jumped in
to the creek in an endavor to put out
the fire that was consuming them.
Many of these, overwhelmed by
flames, dropped where they stood and
never again moved. 1t was about 1
a. m. when Deputy Sheriff Osterhout
called for volunteers to remove the
dead and injured. Three times as
many as were called for stepped for
ward and the gruesome work was be-
gun. In a short time fifteen bodies
had been recovered and laid beside
the track. Some were so badly burned
and distorted as to be scarcely rec
ognizable. The body of one boy was
seen too close to the flames to be ap-
preached and in short time it was
burned to q crisp. When the last body
had been rescued, stretcher bearers
formed procession and started down
the track toward ambulances and car
riages. The crowd fell back and open
ed 9 passage way for them. The re-
mains of the dead arrived in the
city about o'clock and were taken
to undertaking establishments to be
prepared for burial.
A canvass of the city and adjoining
villages will be taken to ascertain
the names of the missing. It will be
impossible to identify some OF the
dead. and they, it is said, will be bur
led together.
FATAL SHOOTING oc-