RAILWAY DISASTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 89, 10 March 1884, Page 2

RAILWAY DISASTER.

A Terrible Narrative. ! One of those disasters peculiar to the oil country shocked -lihb people of Bradford, Pa, on January 15; An entire passenger train on the Bradford, Borwell, and Kinzua - Narrowguage Bail road was* destroyed by fire. The train ran through a river of oil, which had escaped from a buvsted tank on a steep hill, and coursed down over the. Snow; and into the track, down which it ran for nearly' half-a-mile. The grade at that point which was very steep, allowed this great leeway. The train consisted of an express car and passenger coach both wellfilled with passengers. The engineer was not aware of the dangerous ground on which the train was travelling. The moment the furnace came m contact with the furnace of the engine it ignited and at once enveloped the entire train m a mass of flames. The engineer (Patrick Sexton) applied the air brake and re>i versed the engine. The halt -was very , brief. The track for over 600 ft was a roaring sea of ilanSe, and great clouds of dense black smoke ascended heavenward, _ The. engineer opened wide his throttle, and away thundered the train through the smoke, flame, and oil . The speed attained was terrible, and acted as a huge fan to the conflagration. The engineer saw a sharp curve ahead, and, quickly reversing hw engine, he, with his fireman (Mike Walsh) jumped into a snow bank which lined both sides of the road. Both were terribly burned; The entire train was derailed and thrown down an embankment. ,-, r „ , ■.. In the fire-hemmed coach the scene beggared description. . Locked m, and helpless m the burning cars, travelling at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, the passengers' anguish kuew no bounds'. Men of nerve lost their bead, women , fqll on the floor m a swoon, and the , dies and lamentations of little children pierced hearts of iron. There , was death through the doors, and the .sweeping flames cooked the flesh and singed the hair on the faces and heads of the imprisoned pass angers. 'It was everybody for themselves, and men m their desperation Jumped from the speeding cars, and iell, prostrate to the ground, burned and mangled. So intense was the beat that one minute after .the train entered the sea of fire every window wa.s cracked. Two-< thirds of the passengers jumped through the narrow windows a majority escaping with severe burns, while a lucky few escaped without a scratch.

Three of tbe passengers were burned to death. The victims were all women. Mrs L. 0. Fair was burned to; death.; When taken from the ruins her body was fouud to be burned almost beyond recognition. Her husband, who was m the baggage car^ was to. render her aid. He escaped with a few slight burns. ;!Geurgo M'Cartney, a newsboy, who is badly burued about. face,' head a^d.' hjujds, wilt recover^ He could " havb escaped without injury, and he was nearly out of the oar when he heard the cries" of Mrs Fair, and attempted to help the woman out, but at the critical moment she lost her presence of mind and fainted. In order to save himself the boy jumped through a window, and landed, m a pool of burning oil, John Burke, of Dunkirk (N.T.), with his gistcir Mary was, on tho train . they . ; occupied seat* near the centre of the car, and escaped with slight: injuries. Mr Burke «aid ; . " The train was running at the rate of fifteen miles a.n. hour, when suddenly' the car became dark, , when jets of flame leaped up on all sides and through^ the ventilators of the car, The glass. 'icracked with a snap an.d tho :heat be^ cams unendurable, X .kjftew ,.,at once that we were.passing through an oil ifire. On all sides was heard the oranh- . ing; of glass and. the deftf eniug, roar of a sea ot flame, The car was a regular hell. In less than three minutes after it caught/fire, the car, was filled with the cries of women am} oiUdren and the groans of men, "\Vomen were picked up by strong hands and bodily thrown through the crackling windows. Those who jumped out of the windows fared better thantheiew who dashed through the do.ors , into the ocean of flames. Those who jumded from the windows landed ;in huge , diifts . of allow, while those, who went through the doors had their hand? and. faoes and their clothing badly burned. •' The oar swayed to and fro like a ship m a heavy sea. The windows offered the only means of escape. 1 picked my -sister up and dashed her head first through a window. X then picked up a 'little girl who was crying and throw her out of the same window, and then I made a jump myself, landing m a snowdrift My moustache and hair we only slightly singed. ; My sister ' < rolled down the - bank, and escaped- without a .scratch." An eye witness of the disaster said : <• Fov a distance of nearly half iij mile the road was covered . with oil. f ;At points ii was over the raiW T!\i£ moment the gas came m eon tact with' the fire box it exploded, firing the oil. ( ahd m less than one minute the" en cine and cars were mvelopsd m flames The driving whee,ls of the , enginj^v which was dashing along, -scattered the oil over everything, with a rush land roar which might have been heard for a mile. The flames leaped fully 25l)ft ahead of the locomotive* which was thus 1 cf>mpel!ed to run through a Yer* , ticalseaon fire,"