The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-10-23
SCORES KILLED.
An Indiana Town Practically De.
stroyed by Terrific Explosion
HUNDREDS INJURED.

POWDER Plant Blows Up, Scattering
Destruction in Every Direction
The Conclusion Was Felt Two
: Hundred Miles Away-Al Build
ings in the Town Were Wrecked
and Inhabitants Killed OF Injured,
The town of Fontanet in Indiana
was practically destroyed Tuesday by
the explosion of the plant of the Du-
. pont Powder Company. J
The dead number from twenty-five
to fifty. More than six hundred per-
sons were injured and every building
in the town vas wholly or partially
levelled to the ground.
Where stood a thriving and busy
town of 1000 people Tuesday morn
ing Tuesday night there is ruin and
scattered wreckage.
Five hundred inhabitants, all more
or less seriously injured, have been
taken away.
Five hundred inhabitants, all more
.or less wounded, remain to gather
their scattered household goods and
sleep under tents and on cots, guard
ed by soldiers of the State.
Without warning the powder mills,
seven in number, blew up at 9.15
o'clock Tuesday morning. They en-
ployed two hundred men, and of
these seventy-fiye we're 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, situated several
hundred yards from the mills, were
stored 10000 kegs of powder. When
it blew up the conclusion was felt
nearly two hundred miles away.
Farm houses two miles away and
school houses equally distant were
torn to pieces and their occupants in
jured. A passenger train on the Big
Four Railroad, four miles away, had
every car window broken and several
passengers were injured by flying
glass.
The mill went up with three dis
tinct explosions, followed ninety min
utes later by a fourth, even more SER
ious than the others, when the mag
azine blew up.
Immediately following the explo-
sions the wreckage caught fire 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
danger from possible succeeding ex-
plosions, unmindful Of their ruined
homes.
Dead and dying were. picked up
and collected. Eighteen bodies burn
ed and mangled were carted to a pro-
tected spot to await identification,
while the badly injured, numbering
upward Of fifty. were put on a special
train and taken to Terre Haute for
hospital accommodations.
Nearly every one of the n thous-
and inhabitants carried blood on
hands and face from his or her own
wounds or those of people who had
required aid.
The mills were located one mile
south of the town. With the first
explosion the employees ran for SAT-
ty, but most of them were killed or
wounded by the quickly following eX-
blossoms in the other mill.
When the heat from the burning
mills exploded the main powder maya
zine, later, practically destroying the
town by the conclusion, many Oh
those engaged in rescue work were
badly injured and several were kill
ed.
Superintendent Monahan. of the
plant, was killed while sitting in his
office. and his wife and sster-n-law
. we're killed in their home some dis
lance away.
That the death list is not far great
er is due to the fact that the people
in town had left their houses at the
first explosion and were not in them
when the explosion of the 4O,OOO
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, the de-
not. all business blocks, including
large block just completed, a large
ware house and 500 homes.
Three school buildings were de
stroyed, two at Fontanet and one a.
Coal Bluff, two miles away. AL
were filled with school children ane
every one of these were more or les:
injured by the collapse Of the bull
dings.
A four-room school building wa:
torn to pieces and not one Of the tWt
hundred children escaped unhurt.
none was fatally hurt. The schoo
building at Coal Bluff was turnet
over and collapsed. The teacher ant
ninety pupils were more or less in
jured.
Terre Haute and Brazil sent physl
clans and nurses with supplies Il
c.rriaee and automobiles acros
the country, while special trains Wer