The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-10-16
VICTIMS CREMATED
IN BURNING RUINS
Governor Hanly Goes to Stricken
Village With Tents and Cots
Terre Haute County National
Guards Ordered There-shock Felt
for Miles.

1Alied ....'.-....-.... 35
Fatally hurt. Observation-Disclosures. 20
Seriously injured. ...... 600
Property IOss. ............... 81, 900, 900
Fontanet, Ind. Oct. 16.-At least
thirty-five persons were killed. TWEEN
ty fatally injured and about six hun
dred less seriously hurt here yester-
day morning by explosion that de-
stroyed the Dupont Powder Company's
mills.
The little town. which is twelve miles
northeast of Brazil. was wrecked. and
other towns and cities within a radius
of fifty or more miles were shaken
and buildings damaged.
Employees Suffered.
Seven structures, comprising the mill.
were blown up, and 1t is believed that
of the seventy five or eighty employees
none escaped death or injury. Some of
the victims bodies were burned in the
wreckage, which caught fire immedi-
ately after the first explosion. Super
intendsnt Monahan is one OF the miss
ing.
Telephone communication with the
town was destroyed and as telegraph
facilities are meager, details of the
disaster were difficult to obtain First
reports of the explosion placed the loss
OF life at 100, but later advices showed
that this number was exaggerated.
Four Distinct Explosions.
There were four separate explosions
the first at 9:15 a. M, two more soon
afterwards. and the fourth at 1o:45
The first explosion was in the glazing
mill and the other mills nearby were
blown up next. The magazine, in which
it Is estimated many thousand kegs OF
powder were stored, was the last to
go.
AS soon as the first explosion oc-
Cured the wreckage caught fire and
the flames communicated to train on
a side-track nearby.
The first person rescued was Doc"
Carroll an employee, who was caught
in the debris of the mills He was al
most burned to a crisp but he was
still alive and he begged his rescuers
to end his agony by killing him.
Taken Out Dead.
Yes Dial and his son were both dead
when taken out. VIII Dalton was
found to be unconscious, and he will
die.
All were employees of the company
Charles Wells, an engineer on the
freight train standing on the siding
was badly injured about the left leg
and he was also burned, but his con
dition is not fatal.
Fifteen or twenty bodies were taker
out and removed to a temporary
morgue, without their names being as
certained. These bodies were re-
moved by strangers, who had no means
of Identification
School building Wrecked.
< brick building nearly a quarter OF
a mile distant, in which there were
twenty FIVE children. was wrecked. Sew
eral OF the children were injured. bur
the teacher in charge stated that none
fatally hurt.
At 10:45 p. m. the heat of the FIRE
caused the magazine to explode. This
building was in a hollow, some dis
tauce away.
Not a house was left standing un-
harmed in Fontanet The roofs o,
some were torn off. the sides OF other.
crushed in. the windows smashed anC
the chimneys dismantled.
200 People Homeless.
Nearly 700 people were left practi
cally homeless. One farm house three
quarters of mile away was blown
10 pieces.
None OF the residents were killed II
their homes. When the first explosion
came the people rushed from thei
homes, and they were in the street O.
running toward the point OF DANCE
when the other explosion came
Damage at Brazil.
The explosions were so severely Eel
I'm Brazil that In the resident distric
the windows on the second floors wer,
shivered, while in the business dis
trict scarcely a block escaped damage
nearly every window being shattered
The new Citizens Bank buolding. jus
being finished. had all OF its plate
glass front broken to fragments
The shock of the several explosion
was felt for many miles around. man,
people attributing the cause to al
earthquake.
The loss to property in this city, a
the result Of the explosion. viii amour
to $4,000. The large art window Il
the First Methodist Episcopal church
at this place was blown out 1t /
valued at $500. Many chimneys wer
blown from houses and bricks fror
the walls of buildings.
LIST OF IDENTIFIED DEAD.
The names Of the dead whose bodie
have been recovered and identified are
HOMO, GEORGE. JUSTICE. GEORGI
BOBO, JOHN KELLUP. II. II.
CARROLL, ssD0C.' MONAHAN, A. ID.