Blasts rock town
NZPA Helena The Acting Governor of Montana (Mr Bill Christiansen) has declared a state of emergency, in the farming town of Belt, which has a population of 700, where mysterious explosions and fires injured 20 and left two people missing. Two 30,000-gallon propane tanks exploded on Friday, and 27 cars of a 121-car freight train were derailed. Flames destroyed a farm cooperative grain elevator, a lumber yard, a newspaper office and at least 15 homes.
The heat was so intense it set fire to asphalt on the street.
The missing were believed to be working in the cooperative at the time of the explosion. The sheriff’s department said it was operating on the assumption they were dead.
On Saturday investigators still did not know which occurred first — the first propane tank explosion or the train’s derailment alongside the tanks.
The derailed train segment included 15 tapk cars holding propane, crude oil, asphalt and possibly other flammable material.
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Press, 29 November 1976, Page 8
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160Blasts rock town Press, 29 November 1976, Page 8
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