Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-12-20
POWDER BLAST
Continued from PAGE One)

from reaching the car containing the
powder, when the explosion occurred.
The other injured were residents Of
West Patterson.
The shock of the explosion, which
came an hour at least after half of
the cars of the train has piled up
across the double tracks, was dis
tinctly felt at Danbury, Conn, Is
miles away. There was some trace
of it in Bridgeport, Conn, southeast
of the wreck, and at Poughkeepsie,
on the Hudson, according to reports
which reached the Danbury offices Of
the Central New England.
The train was New York, New
Haven and Hartford, bound from
Maybrock to Boston, being routed
over the Central New England.
Twelve cars in the middle of the
train were derailed at 1910 P. NJ, in
such way that total of 20 cars
were placed so that it was impossible
to pull them out of danger after the
fire broke out. The derailment was
believed to have been the result OF a
broken axle.
The fire started apparently in the
twenty second car, which contained
linseed oil. Two local fire depar,
illSdNS "ClC SCliCQp put WSIS dtleipAS
to do anything because OF the alb
head of the train were pulled out of
danger and an engine, hastily sum-
moned from HopeWell, n. Y, saved
Is cars at the rear. Efforts were still
being made by trainmen and volun-
teers from the vicinity to get out the
remaining cars when the flames
reached the powder. The workers
who had been on the lookout for the
explosion, were either well away from
the wreck or running to afety when
it occurred.
Some of them were knocked down
suffering decorations and shock.
Houses nearby were rocked. TWO,
the homes Of Ward Rogers, 500 feet
away, and that of James E. Towner,
farther away, were demolished. A
stove in the Rogers house was hurl-
ed through a window, the fire sun
burning sometime after it landed up
right in the yard. The house OF Mrs.
Emily Peck, 1000 fe@ away, suffered
badly. Barns of the Rogers and Peck
places were rent asunder.
The towns Baptist Church. about
1900 feet away, was damaged, stain
glass windows being broken, and the
lLlGIiOt NltShCOs S'NA1NA 80
houses in the vicinity had widows
broken.
The fields and highways within a
radius of a quarter of a mile were
showered with debris. Trees in a
patch of woods on hillside less than
200 feet away had the bark peeled OH
and the trunks left blackened.
The trainmen injured We're:
Trainmaster H. A. Christinger, OF
Hopewell, n. Y; internal injuries;
| Conductor c. H. Lundie, of Dnabury'
/ Conn, slight cuts and shock; l.. B.
/ WINNERS, brakeman, Hopeweil.
| shock; Conductor J. ]. Shields OF
/ Hartford, Conn, cuts and shock.
| The list of residents OF West Pat
| terson injured, received at the rail-
road offices at Danbury, follows:
Joseph D. Rogers, cuts and shock;
! Minnie 3. Cole, shock; S. D. Rundeii'
cuts about head and face: Leona
! Rundell, cuts and chock; Mrs. 5. d
I Rundefl, shock; Louis Robinson, cuts
about face and hands; Mrs. Mabel
Robinson, cuts; Peter O'Hara, cuts
! Anna. OHara, cuts about the face
and arms; Mrs. C. B. Peck, cuts;
Alfred OHara, cut about the head !;
Ward c. Rogers, cut about the heal,
! face and arms; Lorain c. Rogers,
undetermined injuries; Mildred b.
| Rogers, cuts and shock.