Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1887 — SINGULAR ACCIDENT. [ARTICLE]

SINGULAR ACCIDENT.

Five Persons Killed Near Chicago by tlio Collapse of a WaterTank. [Chicago special.l A terrible and peculiar accident occurred Sunday afternoon at Palatine, a station twenty-six miles northeast of Chicago, on the Chicago and Northwestern Bailway. By the bursting of a large railroad watertank five men were killed outright and four were seriously injured. At an early hour in the morning two freight trains collided at Palatine. The engines were wrecked and a number of cars demolished and hurled from the track. The collision occurred directly beside a large watertank which stands near the depot. The ground was torn up, and some of the supports must have been lowered. The water-tank had a capacity of 100,000 gallons, and contained at the time about 80,000 gallons. A wrecking train was sent out from Chicago, and a large force of men set to work to clear up the wreck. As it was Sunday, and the people of the village and neighborhood were idle, a large crowd of men and boys gathered around the scene of the wreck, watching the work of the wrecking hands. As the greatest amount of work was being done right beside the water-tank, the largest crowd of spectators collected there. Men and boys stood around and under the water-tank, and leaned against the large posts supporting it. Suddenly there was a report, in volume as loud as the discharge of ten ordinary pieces of musketry, and the structure collapsed. The great sides of the tank were forced outward, the hoops parted like threads, and, under the weight of 80,000 gallons of water, the heavy, watersoaked timbers and wrougnt iron descended on the heads of the unfortunates underneath. It would be impossible to picture the sight. Hemmed under the parted tunk, and for a moment totally submerged in the deluge that followed, were the people caught in the crush. When the water had flowed off—the work df but a second—five men, instantly killed, could be seen thiough the crevices of the piled-up staves.