The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-21
Coaches Demolished and Engine Hurled Fifty Feet By the
 Powder Explosion
DEATH LIST NOT COMPLETE
 IN BIG FOUR D|SAST FER
Entire Passenger Train Standing by Car Load of Powder Blown From Track at Sandford Station
 and Scores Cremated

Terre Haute, Ind, January 20.-Twen- ty-three charred and mutllated bodies have been taken from the smouldering ruins of the passenger train No on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and s. Louis (Big Four) which was destroyed by the explosion of carload of powder as it passed a freight train at sandford, nine miles west of here last night. The number of injured will reach at least thirty-five
 The entire train was blown from tns track coaches demolished and the en- zine hurled fifty feet. The passengers either were blown to pieces, cremated or rescued in @ more or less injured condi- ton. The injured, some of whom are fatally hurt are in the hospitai: in Terre Haute and Paris, H., and at Sandford. The full extent of the disaster was re- vealed at daylight, but the death list will not be complete until workmen have finished removing the debris.
 Cause of Disaster. According to the trainmen of the freight the powder was exploded by the concussion made by the passenger train, which was slowing down for the station at Sandford.
 Another theory is that gas escaping from an oil pipe line nearby entered the powder car and spark from the passen- ger engine ignited the gas.
 Others express the belief that the dis aster was due to tramps or an intoxi- cated man firing a shot into the car.
  force of the 'ex poson. Great masses of iron were found hundreds of feet from the track The tank of the passenger engine was hurled nearly one hundred feet, landing in a gravel bed.
 Two passenger coaches and one ba6- gage car were consumed by fire. The freight train in which was the car of powder, was demolished. Sandford was badly shaken. Windows were shat tered dishes and furniture broken and doors torn from their hinges.
 The entire passenger train was blown off the track and crushed into the mud a mere mass of debris, pinning under It forty human beings. Fire broke out and before the eyes of citizens and rescurers who rushed to the rescue, many Burned
 
 them
 In the darkness by the light of burning coaches, the people of Sandford did their best for the stricken. Cries of the injured and the cracking of the flames, together with the odor of burning human flesh greeted the rescuers, who worked fran tically, but soon were forced back by the terrible heat.
 Women Cared for Injured. As men threw their strength to the work of dlsentanglng the human forms from the wreckage, the women of Sand ford cared for the injured
 When the fire drove the rescuers away they waited until the fire died down and started to drag out the charred bodies. Men searched nearby fields and found pieces of human flesh and wearing apl parel.
 Engineer Welsh and Fireman Jared of Mattoon, H., who were in charge of ly hundred feet through the air and fell in a muddy field.
 The explosion and fire destroyed tels- graphic communication and Sandford with its victims was alone for hours Following is a list of the dead, so far ss is known, up to tonight:
 Identified dead;
 William Thompson, Sandford. Ind. William Davis, Vermilllon. III. J. W. Sutherland. Paris, III.
 John Franklin, Ashmore. III. A. D. Hector, Elbridge, I'll.
 Charles Gosnell, Paris, III.
 Claud Steele Sandford. III.
 A. A. Hicks, Sandford. III.
 D. R. Harlett, Grandview. H.
 Frank Fielder, Findlay, o.
 Mary Earheart. Terre Haute, Ind. H. Blakely Findlay, O..
 John A. Bowen, Mattoon, III.
 James Fenton, Sandford, Ind.
 -Kiever, 12-year-old, body found In tree.
 Missing and believed to have been burned to death:
 Mrs. Bud Wolfe. Sandford. Ind. Two daughters of Mrs. Wolfe. aged 8 and 6.
 A. Kukendahl. thought to be vandalia fireman.
 Body of a dead woman burned beyond recognition.
 Three charred bodies. unidentified. A searching party this evening found the body of a lad named Kiever hanging in a tree several hundred feet from the scene of the explosion. The boy was 12 years of age. His home was in Paris, III.