The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-10-16
STORY OF THE DISASTER.
Most Serious of All the Explosions
Was the Fourth.

Fontanet, Ind. Oct. 16-Fontanet
was practically destroyed Tuesday by
the explosion of the plant of the Du-
Pont powder company.
Where stood a thriving and busy
town of 1000 people, there is ruin and
scattered wreckage. The dead and
more seriously injured have been taken
away. Five hundred inhabitants. all
more or less wounded, remain to gath.
er their scattered 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. They EN-.
ployed 200 men, and of these, seventy.
five were at work when the first ex.
plosion occurred in the press mill. In
quick succession the glazing mill, the
two coming mills and the powder mag.
zine blew up, followed by the car
mill.
10000 Kegs of Powder.
In the magazine. situated several
hundred yards from the mills, were
stored 10000 kegs of powder. The
nearly 200 miles away.
Every house in this town was de.
stroyed. Farm houses two miles
away and school houses equally dis
tant were torn to pieces and their oc
cupants injured. A passenger tra.r
on the Big Four railroad, four mile,
away, had every coach window bro.
ken and several passengers were In.
jured by flying glass.
Fire Adds to the Horror.
The mile went up with three distinci
explosions, followed ninety minutes
later by fourth, even more serious
than the others, when the magazine
went up.
Immediately following the explosions
the wreckage took fire and the inhabit.
ants of the town who rushed to the res
cue of the mill employees found them.
selves powerless to aid those burning
in the ruins. They worked frantically
in constant danger from possible sue
ceeding explosions, 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 upward of fifty, were
put on special train and taken to
Terre Haute for hospital accommoda.
tions. Scarcely one of the 1000 in.
habitants of the town but carried blood
on hands and face from his own
wounds or those of people who had re-
quired aid.
Overtaken az by Earthquake.
The mills were located one mile
south of the town. With the first ex.
plosion, the employees ran for safety,
but most of them were killed or wound.
ed by the quick following explosions IL
the other mills. When the heat from
the burning mills exploded the giant
powder magazine, ninety minutes later
destroying tie town by the concussion.
many of those engaged in rescue work
were badly injured and several killed.
Superintendent Monahan. of the
plant. was killed while sitting in his
office, and his wife and sister-in-law
were killed in their home. some dis
tance away. That the death list is
not greater is due to the fact that the
people of the town had left their
houses at the first explosion and were
not in them when the explosion of the
10000 kegs of powder in the magazine
hurled their homes to pieces and scat.
tered their household goods in heaps
of debris.
Churches Also Destroyed.
Among the buildings totally DESTROY.
eo in the town were the Methodist and
Christian churches, two school build.
ings. the depot. all business blocks. in
Guiding a large block Just completed.
CONTINUED on Page Two.) as.s