Connecticut western news., 1907-10-17
SCORES ARE KILLED,
Powder Explosions Destroy Town In Indiana and Hurt 600.
ALL OF FONTANET WIPED OUT

Great Plant of the Du Pont Powder
 Company Blows Up, Damaging Places
 Many Miles Off-Forty Thousand
 Kegs of Material In Works.
 Fontanet, Ind, Oct. 16.-Upward of fifty persons were killed, the majority being blown to pieces; 600 persons out of total population of 1000 were in jured and every building in this town was razed in a series of explosions in the Du Pont powder plant, which cul- minated in the blowing up of the mag azine, containing 10000 barrels of blasting powder. The force of this crowning blast was so terrific that the earth trembled and buildings were blown down four miles distant. A schoolhouse in Coal Bluff, two miles away, was thrown over and smashed. The teacher and forty pupils were buried in the wreck. A passenger train, travelling forty miles an hour on the line of the Big Four railroad, four miles distant, was almost thrown from the tracks. Every window in the train was shattered.
 Reports from other points show that there was widespread terror of an earthquake The last and greatest ex- plosion was heard at points fifty miles from here, but it appears that the greater part of the state and large sec tions of Ohio and Illinois were shaken, In Terre Haute, twenty miles as the crow flies, windows were shattered and ceilings were shaken down. In Charlottesville, thirty-five miles away, walls were cracked, and in one large building of recent construction the tiled floor sank more than an inch. Great damage was done fifteen miles distant in Brazil There was a gen. eral flight from the houses, in the be- lief of an earthquake, until at the end of a minute there came the distinct roar of the explosion. In many places the explosion was taken as thunder.
 Town Simply Blotted Out.
 Nothing remains of this town to mark it for what 1t was. Even the sidewalks have been obliterated. Not a tree stands for two miles around. Hedges, stone ditches, wire fences, all have gone. There are great Assures in the earth, as if one of the giants of the ancients had turned tremendous furrow. Here and there are great holes like dents in the ground, and over all the field of desolation is strewn the wreckage of homes. Doors, raft CTS, window frames, bricks, mortar, all are scattered flat, with not foot of wall protruding anywhere. And with this wreckage of bare walls and floors are strewn the furnishings of 400 fam flies. Pianos, beds, tables, chairs, pie lures, clocks are scattered on all sides, not an article intact, all broken and cast with a direction as If mysterious plotted 1t out
 There were four explosions. To the devotion of the townsfOlk to the men caught in the mills was due the heavy loss of life and the appalling list of injured. With fire spreading rapidly and threatening the magazine not a man, woman or. child deserted the town. Instead all gathered around the plant ready to sacrifice their lives to
 
 wreck of the mills, and the work was in progress, injured men being carried out by the score, when the magazine blew up.
 It was said by survivors that there was a flash, and then 1t seemed there was moments suspense, followed by a crash that struck every person with in a radius of a mile either dying or senseless. Those who escaped death bled from ears, noses and mouths, and the eardrums of scores were shatter- ed Farmers were the first to invade the stricken area. They found the surviving hundreds beginning to regain their senses. All communication by telegraph and telephone was cut off, but fortunately the train which so narrowly escaped disaster carried the news to a station, from which it was telephoned to Terre Haute and Brazil. Relief trains were dispatched within an hour from those cities, and as quick ly as the injured were picked up they were carried on stretchers to the trains Four specials bore them to Terre Haute. The hospitals there were un- able to accommodate all, and two schools were impressed as temporary hospitals.
 Militia Guarding the Ruins.
 Twelve policemen were sent here from Terre Haute, and the ruins o. the town are guarded by state militia, ordered here by Governor Handy. Not a vestige of the great powder plant remains. Even the stones of the walls were blown to atoms. At the spot where the magazine stood there is a hole in the earth fifty feet deep and hundred feet across. Huge powders in the ground were cracked and bro ken, and rocks in the fields surround ing the plant were thrown all dis tances up to mile.
 Fewer than 800 out of the towns 1000 are here, and they depend fol food and shelter upon the troops. Gov, ernor Handy is here directing the re lief work Several hundred tents have been pitched. But there are neither