The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-10-23
SCORES KILLED.
An Indiana Town Practically De.
stroyed by Terrific Explosion
HUNDREDS INJURED.
Powder Plant Blows Up, Scattering

Powder Plant Blows Up, Scattering
Destruction in Every Direction
The Concession Was Felt Two
Hundred Miles Away-AlI Build
ings in the Town Were Wrecked
and Inhabitants Killed or Injured
The town Of Fontanet in Indiana
was practically destroyed Tuesday b,
the explosion Of the plant of the Du
pont Powder Company.
The dead number from twenty-five
to fifty More than six hundred per
sons were injured and every building
in the town was 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.l5
O'Clock Tuesday morning. They en-
ploye6 two hundred men, and OF
these seventy-fve 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. situated several
hundred yards from the mills, were
stored 10000 kegs of powder. When
it blew up the conclusion was 1eit
nearly two hundred miles away
Farm houses two miles away and
school houses equally distant were
torn to pieces and their occupants IN
iured. A passenger train on the Big
Four Railroad, four miles away, had
every car window broken and seVerai
passengers were injured by flying
glass.
The mill went up with three dis
tinct explosions, followed ninety min
utes later by fourth; even more ser
ious than the others, when the mag
azine blew up.
Immediately following the e2ple-
sions the wreckage caught fire and
the inhabitants of the town, VINO
rushed to the rescue of the mill en-
n1oyes. found themselves powerless
To aid those burning in the runs
They worked frartically, in constant
danger from possible succeeding eN.
nlosions, unmindful of their rulneo
homes.
Dead and dying were picked W
and collected. Eighteen BODIES -ouFh
ed and mangled were carteo 10 pro
+ected SPOT to await identlflcatlon
while the badly injured, mum oeTlhs
inward of fifty, were put on specla
train and taken to Terre Haute 10
hospital accommodations.
Nearly every one Of the one thous
and inhabitants carried olooo o.
hands and face from his or her owl
wounds or those Of people VINO ma
required aid.
Tho mills were located one mil
sonth of the town. With the mrs
EXPLOSION the employees ran for sal
~ but most Of them were killed Q
wounded by the quickly following e.
n;osions in the other mill.
When the heat from the ournln
mills exploded the main powder mag
zine later, practically destroying u
town by the conclusion. many
those engaged in rescue "orA we, :,
hadly injured and several were Ai'
ed. ~
Superintendent Monahan' OF u u
nlant. was killed while sitting III Il
ae5ce and his wife and sster-n-la
80 r;,,e6 in their home some q
tance away. oo
That the death list is not Tar srea
or is due to the fact that the peoE
IN rowo had left their houses at u
FIRST explosion and were not IN .ne o,
when the explosion OF the wv
kegs of powder in the msss1n
bnr,ed their homes to pieces d
so.+rero6 their household goods
heaps of debris.
Among the buildings toealiE
srroved in the town were the Me'.
dist and Christian churches the
not ali business blocks, lnciuolhs
large block just completed a Id
waTe house and 500 homes.
Three school buildings were {
s-roved two at Fontaner and one
Coal Bluff. two miles away
vere filed with school chliorea q
every one of these we're more Vi = !
injured by the collapse OF the d
dings. nsi,e
torn to pieces and not one OF ens ;,
hundred children escaped unnu u
none was fatally hurt Ine sen sen
hn;lding at Coal Bluff was 'uF'
over and collapsed. The 1eacner
ninety pupils we're more OF less
jured. a;,ean+ nh
Terre Haute and Brazil sent pa
clans and nurses with supplies
carriages and automoniles az.
rhe country, while special trains
made up and run over tne o!s :.
railroad for the care OF tne iuI u
Governor Hanly. AZ mar uap :,
or dered the Terre HaHte coin pa L
the Indiana National Gnaru W 20
49, r,iood district and TO pFoIee'