The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1907-10-16
LIKE EARTHQUAKE
Du Pont Powder Mills at
Fontanet. Ind. Blow Up.
SCORES ARE TORN TO PIECES
Town Almost Entirely Wiped Out
of Existence.
MANY INJURED BURNED TO DEATH

MANY INJURED BURNED TO DEATH
Disaster Shakes Whole Surrounding
Country - City OF Terre Haute IL
Jared as Though by shocks-ThOu-
sands Rush In Panic From Their
Homes - Also Hits Cincinnati and
Whole State Appears TO Have Felt
Amount to Fifty-Hundreds Wound
ed and Burned.
FONTANET, Ind, Oct. 16.-FOnta-
net has been practically destroyed by
the explosion of the plant Of the Du
Pont Powder company. The dead
number from twenty-five to fifty.
More than 600 persons were injured
and evc.y building in the town was
wholly or partially levcled to the
ground.
Where stood busy and thriving
town of 1000 people in the morning at
night was Il ruin filed with scattered
wreckage. The dead and more seri-
ously injured have been taken away.
Five hundred inhabitants, all more or
less wounded, remain TO gather their
scattered household goods and sleep
/ n
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
azine blew up, followed by the cap
mill In the magazine, situated sew
eral hundred yards from the mills,
were stored 10000 kegs of powder.
| When 1t blew up the conclusion was
felt nearly 200 miles away.
Farmhouses two miles away and
schoolhouses equally distant were torn
to pieces and their occupants injured.
A passenger train on the Big Four
railroad, four miles away. had every
coach window broken and several pas
sengers were injured by flying glass.
The shock extended as far as Ohio
and was at first supposed to result
from an earthquake.
Two hours after the first explosion
and while physicians and volunteers
were at work In the ruins there was
another, almost a. powerful. Several
| physicians and score Of their as
sistants were hurt There was moth
ing left for the last explosion to do,
however, in the way of destruction to
property. as the first had cleaned the
landscape for half mile on all sides.
Drs. William and Moors of Terre
Haute were among those hurt in the
second explosion. They had gone to
Fontanet in automobiles. Terre Haute
is eighteen miles west of the powder
plant.
The wreck about the plant caught
| fire and the bodies of most of the VIC
| tins We're consumed. 1t Is thought
that some of the injured were also
burned to death
Telegraph and telephone wires were
wrecked for miles In all directions
from Fontanet, and the tracks Of the
Big -Four railroad passing through the
town Were blown up.
The city of Terre Haute was Jared
as though by an earthquake. Win
dows were broken, chimneys were
shaken down, walls We're cracked and
thousands rushed in panic from
houses, stores and factories.
The shock was very plain In this
city, and every one supposed 1t was
due to an earthquake until telephone
messages telling of the severity of 1t
began to come in from points closer to
| Fontanet. Then 1t was learned that
the force of the explosion had shaken
the earth clear to Cincinnati, where
the shock was plainly felt At the
| University of Cincinnati the earth
quake registering machinery recorded
! pronounced shocks.
AT Crawfordsville, thirty-fve miles
from Fontanet, the shock cracked a
strong brick wall of big business
building and sank tiled floor In a
business block one inch. Brazil, Ind,
fifteen miles away, was rocked to its
foundations. Three distinct shocks
were felt in that city, the last two fol-
| lowing the first at intervals OF few
seconds. Windows were shattered all
over that city. Every pane of glass in
the big Citizens National bank build
ing was shivered
Continuous reports from Indiana
points indicate that the whole state
was shaken. The nature Of the shock
justified the general belief that there
had been an earthquake and hundreds
of messages of inquiry were soon
speeding to this city and Cincinnati
from country newspapers.
Company B, Indiana national guard,
Immediately upon reaching Fontanet
reported to Sheriff Horley, who placed
the men around the most damaged sec
lions of the city. The soldiers will act
under orders from the sheriff unless
Governor Hanly sees ft to declare mar
| tlal law.
Ball cartridges were given each sol
der, although 1t is not expected that
any looting will be attempted.
! State Superintendent Nash Of the