Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-03-14
Fourteen to Twenty Persons Meet
Death at Olean, N. Y, by Explo-
sion of Oil Tank Cars.
ARE SEVERELY IF NOT FATALLY BURNED
Liquid Fire Poured Upon Heads OF
Big Crowd, Gathered to Watch 4
Fire, Which Followed the Wreck
Ing of Freight Train - Awful
Scenes Follow the Explosion.

AumDer OF people were burned or
bruised by an explosion of oil late
Monday night, following wreck on
the Erie railroad, north of this CITY.
Owing to the fact that some of the bod
les were incinerated in the fierce
names, or blown into the creek by the
fierce explosion the exact number of
dead will proba bly, not be known for
several days. The number of injured,
too, is uncertain, as large number of
them were able to reach their homes
and received treatment there. The
known casualties are as follows:
The List of Dead.
The dead: John Stemlinger, aged
II years; Norman Brown, aged 1s
years; John Tobin, aged 16; John Nc
Cready, aged 10 years; John McMa-
han, aged 10 years; Walter Swift,
aged 10 years; Michael Driscoll aged
% years; Walter Jackson, aged 10
years; Walter Roth. aged 16 years;
Richard Cornell, aged 10 years; Her
man Bollman, aged IS years; Rofelo
Quarinto; Carmen Sitliano, all of
Olean; Henry Gornder, aged 10
years, Boardmanville.
The injured at the general hospital
are: James Mcdonald, 16 years old,
limbs badly burned: Richard McDon-
aid, his brother, badly burned, leg
fractured; James McCready. IS years
old. burned about face and legs; Wal
ter Jackson, II years old, burned about
back. chest, face and hands, inhaled
flames. may die: son of Yardmaster
Sullivan; Glen Cole. East Olean, struck
by flying splinter, burned; two Black
well boys. of Bordenville; Bert Miller,
of Bordenville, seriously burned; three
men badly burned. did not leave names
at hospital. went to their homes.
Dozens of others were burned, but
none seriously.
At the hospital one of the patients
said a young boy was blown into the
creek near him. He tried to save the
Had, but was unable to do so. The boy
was drowned.
Cause of the Disaster.
The scenes following the explosion
will never be forgotten by those who
saw them. 1t was about nine o'clock
in the evening when the train was
wrecked. An Erie freight train west
bound broke in two on the hill two
miles north of the city. At first the
forward part of the train, released of
all the weight of the cars behind,
sprang forward with increased speed.
Brakes were applied and the front
portion of the train was brought al
most to a standstill at the iron bridge
across Olean creek.
The rear cars, gathering momentum
as they came down the hill, crashed
into the forward part of the train.
Most of the cars in the train were tank
cars filled with refined oil or gasoline.
They weighed 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 spark struck from the
grinding pieces of iron in the wreck
age. In a few minutes another car of
gasoline caught fire and burst in
flames with terrific report. Portions
hurled a distance of several hundred
feet. The flames shot high up in the
air, presenting brilliant spectacle.
In this early accident, so far as can
be learned, no one was injured. A
crowd quickly gathered. Hundreds of
people from Olean, North Clean and
the surrounding countryside gathered
to watch the brilliant play of flames.
The Fatal Explosion.
For two hours the people stood
massed together, and as the heat be-
came less intense the crowd began to
edge a little closer to the wreckage,
until about II o'clock some venture
some boys approached to within few
hundred feet of the burning debris.
Suddenly there was terrific explo-
sion. Great masses of white flames
shot hundreds of feet into the air and
literally rolled down the banked sides
of the track into the gully where the
spectators were standing. Men and
bows fell before the wave of white
light to rise no more. Huge pieces
of iron were hurled through the air,
moving down the human beings by
the score. Some managed to scramble
to their feet and get away, but others
Law still in death. The scene of agony
and horror at that moment was be-
yond description. A veritable rain of
fire came down upon the crowd. Men
and boys, with their clothing mass
Of flames, ran shrieking down the
track, some of them falling to the
ground unconscious, while others grow
.eled in the ditch or, jumped into the
creek in an endeavor to put out the
fire that was consuming them. Many
of those overwhelmed by the flames
dropped where they stood, and never
again moved.
Il The Call for Help.
AS soon as the telephone could be
reached all the doctors in the city were
summoned and the ambnlances were
called out. Express wagons and other
vehicles were pressed into service. In
the meantime those in the vicinity Of
the wreck who escaped injury made
valiant efforts to rescue the wounded !.