RAILWAY TRAIN ON FIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1682, 16 February 1884, Page 11

RAILWAY TRAIN ON FIRE.

Three women wore burnt to death at Bradford, Pa., on January 15, A plr<=am of v.(v»te oil flowing from a tank aero." i.h« l»r;ifUoid, Bordell, and Kingswell railw.-iv-tu o caught. fire. The passenger train from Wellsville for .Bradford ran into it, and tho *-raiu v.'.\« immediately enveloped in flames. Tho tr.u-k fora distance of fully 100 yards was cuertd with oil. The doomed train in an instant \va<* in a mass of flames. So intense was tho heat that the windows cracked and fpll ia.. In Jess time than it takes to write it the passenger-coach and baggage- car were converted into a seething, hissing mass of fire. The coach was tilled. There was a rush forthedoor,buttheheatwasso intense that the panic-stricken passengers were driven back ' and forced to jump through the .window, to land in the snow. A relief-train with 'surgeons and cots was despatched to the Bcene. Upon its arrival a terrible sight presented itself. The passenger-coach and baggage-car were smoking* ruins, and the engine was lying on its back, having turned a complete somersault. It is definitely known that only three persons (women) were r" r 4 ed -r.*° dent l 1< The dead are Mrs O.^. Hair, of Kingua Junction, who was burned beyond recognition; Mrs Fair, a young woman who had only been married two years (her husband escaping by jumping through tho window.) ; and Miss Kate Morans, ™-i ?? s ' N '° v ;» a miv station near Acken. The latter was burnt almost to a crisp. Miss Morans was found hanging outside the coach grasping the window-sill. Thirteen other persons were severely burned, and a number will die.