Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1907-10-17
About Thirty-five Persons
Killed in Indiana.
HUNDREDS ARE INJURED
Dupont Powder Mills at Fer
tenat Blow Up.
EVERY HOUSE IN TOWN WRECKED

Ruln-MartlaI Law Is Declared and
State Troops Patrol the Stricken
City, Guarding Life and Property.
Fontanet, Ind, Oct. 16.-The total
number of dead as the result of the
explosion of the Dupont powder mills
here Tuesday is believed to be thirty
FIVE OF these five died In hospitals
at Terre Haute Tuesday night. At
least 600 were injured and an i'm
mense amount of property was de-
stroyed.
The town is practically wiped out
Not a building stands intact and
throughout the day fires kindled in
the ruins cost the lives Of the manned
pinned In the wreckage and added to
the terrifying scenes of destruction.
Where stood thriving and busy
town of 1000 people Tuesday morning.
there now is ruin and scattered wreck.
age. The dead and more seriously in
jured have been taken away. Five
hunderd inhabitants, all more or less
injured, remain to gather their scat
tered household goods and sleep under
tents and on cots. guarded by soldiers
Of the state.
Without warning the powder mills.
seven in number. blew up at 9:15
a. m. They employed 200 men and
OF these rs were at work when the
first explosion occurred In the press
mill. In quick succession the glazing
mill, the two coming mills and the
powder magazine blew up, followed by
the cap mill. In the magazine sit
uated several hundred yards from the
mills were stored 10000 kegs of pow
der. The conclusion when 1t blew up
was felt nearly twenty miles.
Every House Destroyed.
Every house in this town was de-
stroyed Farmhouses two miles away
and schoolhouses equally distant were
torn to pieces and their occupants In
Jured. A passenger train on the Big
Four railroad four miles away had
every coach window broken and sew
eral passengers were injured by fly
Ing glass.
The mills went up with three dis
tinct explosions, followed ninety min
utes later by fourth even more Sc
rious than the others when the maya
zine went up. Immediately following
~ nunlAet4no 10 a.
and the inhabitants of the town who
rushed to the rescue of the mill en-
ployes found themselves powerless
to aid those burning In the ruins. They
worked frantically In constant dan
ger from possible succeeding explo-
sions. unmindful OF their ruined
homes. Dead and dying were picked
up and collected Eighteen bodies
horribly burned and mangled were
carted to a protected spot to await
Identification, while the badly In
jured, numbering upwards OF fifty,
were put on a special train and taken
to Terre Haute for hospital accommo-
dations. Scarcely one OF the thou.
sand inhabitants OF the town but car
ried blood on hands and face from his
own wounds or those Of people who
had required aid.
Employees Ran for Safety.
The mills were located one mile
south Of town. With the first explo-
sion the employees ran for safety, but
most OF them were killed or injured
by the quick-following explosions In
tho other mills. When the heat from
the burning mills exploded the giant
powder magazine ninety minutes
later. destroying the town by the cen
cussion. many of those engaged in res
Gus work were badly injured and sew
eral were killed. Superintendent
Monahan of the plant was killed while
sitting In his Office and his wife and
his slsterin-law were killed In their
homes some distance away. That the
death list is not far greater Is due to
the fact that the people of the town
had left their homes at the first ex-
plosion and were not in them when
the explosion Of the 10000 kegs OF
powder In the magazine hurled their
homes to pieces and scattered their
household goods in heaps of debris.
Among the buildings totally de-
stroyed in the town were the Metho-
dist and Christian churches, two
school buildings. the depot, all bust.
hess blocks, including a large block
Just completed. a large warehouse and
200 homes. In many of them the
fronts were blown away. while in
others the roofs were hurled into
space. the sides blown out or they
were left a confused mass of collapsed
Three school buildings were de-
stroyed ut Fontanet and Coal Bluff,
two miles away. All were filed with
school children and every one Of these