Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1903 — OIL FIRE KILLS SCORE [ARTICLE]

OIL FIRE KILLS SCORE

THE BURNING FLUID 18 THROWN UPON CROWD. Over Fifty Are Frightfully Injured by Explosion of TaiH Care at Fire in the Freight Yards at Olean, New York. L A deluge of burning oil poured upon dozens of spectators of a fire in the Erie freight yards at Oleau, N. Y., caused the death of a gcore or more of persons and frightful Injury to over fifty others. Many bodies have been taken from the wreckage. Some of them are burned beyond recognition, only the trunks and skulls remaining. The death list may reach thirty. The agony of the Injured le pitiable. Great patches of flesh were burned off of some and hang In shreds from their bodies. Several of these victims will die. A freight train, made up principally of tank cars filled with oil, broke in two near Olenn. The two sections of the train came together with a crash and one of the oil tanks was demolished. Fire broke out nlmost instantly and the sky was lighted up for miles. Flames CoYcr Crowd. A large crowd at once left the city for the scene of the fire. While they were lined up along the tracks a terrific explosion occurred. The flames communicated quickly to the other tank curs end a second and a third explosion followed each other In rapid succession. Sheets of flamo shot out in all directions. Scores of persons were caught within the zone of the fire and enveloped In tlames. Men and boys ran screaming down the tracks with their clothing a mass of flames. Others fell where they stood, overcome by the awful heat. Just how many were killed Is not known, as many of, the bodies were incinerated. Sydney Fish, a prominent business man, oaid: “I was attracted to the scene of the fire between 9:80 and 10 o’clock. When I was within a quarter of a mile of the wrecked train there was a terrific explosion. Flames shot outward and upward for a great distance. I.ike Human Torches. “I saw several persons who started to run away drop on the railroad tracks, and they never moved again. Others who had been standing close to the wreckage wero hurled through the air for hundreds of feet. The scene was awfuL Half a dozen young hoys ran down the tracks with their clothing on fire. They resembled human torches. I could hear their agonized screams distinctly from where I stood. They ran some distance down the track, nnd then threw themselves to the ground, groveling in the ditches lu their frantic efforts to extinguish the flntnes. Then they lay still, some of them unconscious, others dead. I do not know how many were killed, but I counted twenty bodies before I came away." Word was at once sent to Olean police headquarters by telephone. Every doctor and ambulance In the city was summoned. Grocery wagons and carriages of all kinds were pressed Into service, and everything possible was done to transport the Injured without delay to the hospital* for treatment. Burned Beyond Recognition. It was Impossible to ascertain the names of the dead at once, as their bodlee were burned to ashes in the intense heat A canvass is being made of the city as rapidly as possible to find out the names of those missing. Large crowds gathered at the hospital aud the faces of the injured wero anxiously scanned as they were born* into the building on stretchers. Touching acenes were witnessed when one of the poor blistered bodies was recognized by a father or a mother or brother, and It was with difficulty that persons were restrained from invading the operating room.