The people of Sandford, Indiana, felt the blast before they understood what had happened.
One moment, an accommodation passenger train was slowing along the Big Four railroad near Terre Haute. The next, the train was blown from the tracks, its coaches shattered, its engine thrown aside, and the quiet community struck by a concussion so violent that people miles away thought the earth itself had moved.
At the center of the disaster was a freight car loaded with 500 kegs of powder.
When it exploded, the passenger train beside it was torn apart in an instant.
Passenger Train Blown to Pieces
TERRE HAUTE, Indiana. — Twenty-two charred, broken, mutilated bodies were taken from the smoldering ruins of the accommodation passenger train on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis (Big Four) railroad, following its destruction by the explosion of a carload of powder as it passed a freight train at Sandford, Indiana, five miles west of Terre Haute. The number of injured will total at least 35.
The cause of the disaster has not been fully explained, but several theories are advanced. The result was terrible. The shock was felt for 30 miles, many believing it to be an earthquake.
The entire train, including the locomotive, was blown from the track, the coaches were demolished, the engine was hurled 50 feet and the passengers were blown to pieces, consumed by fire or rescued in an injured condition.
According to trainmen of the freight, the explosion of the powder was caused by the concussion of the passenger train, which was slowing down for Sandford.
Besides the passenger train, eight freight cars were blown to pieces by the explosion. Huge masses of iron were found hundreds of feet from the track. The tank of the passenger locomotive was hurled 100 feet.
The wrecked train and eight freight cars were consumed by fire, which broke out in the wreckage. The other cars were pulled out of danger. Not a building in Sanford escaped damage. Windows were shattered, dishes and furniture broken and several doors were torn from hinges.
As the passenger train was just abreast of the powder car, the contents of the powder car exploded. The entire passenger train was blown from the tracks into the air and crashed to the earth a tangled mass of wood and steal, beneath which lay 40 human beings.
Fire broke out in the wreckage, and before the eyes of citizens and rescuers, who rushed from their homes, many burned to death.
Cries of the injured and the crackling of the fierce flames greeted the ears of the rescuers, who worked frantically, but were soon forced back by the terrible heat.
Passengers were pulled from the ruins as the flames advanced, while the men frantically worked to disentangle the human forms from the wreck and hunted for the injured blown far from the train, the women of Sandford cared for the injured.
After the fire drove the rescuers away they searched for scattered persons until the heat died down, and then began dragging out charred bodies. Men continued to search nearby fields, where pieces of bodies and wearing apparel were picked up.
Under the wreckage of the baggage car was found a charred toro, bearing a lineman’s belt and pools about the waist.
Four mutilated bodies were found in a woods several hundred feet from the tracks.
A thousand feet of track was torn up, and a great hole shows where the powder car stood. This car contained 500 kegs of powder.
Engineer Welsh and Fireman Jarred, of Mattoon, Ill., who were on the passenger locomotive, were hurled 100 feet and fell in a muddy field.
Source: Smyrna Times. Smyrna, Del. January 23, 1907.
