A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 42, 18 February 1879, Page 4

A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION.

[•• A'ta California."] At Truckee, oa January 2oJ, (he moat dreadful accident ever known on the Sacramento Division occurred •boat 3 o'clock in the afternoou, 1 mile east ot Summit. Ea^ine No. 17, a mammoth tau-whebler, weighing forty tons, exploded, instantly killing W. C. Norton, engineer, fatally wounding Charles T. Hoy, fireman, and seriously injuring g. H. Green, yard.maater, at Trnckee, Engine Noa. 17 and 38 left Truckee at, 2 o'clock on a special freight train, and S. H. Green acted ss conductor of the special, and was standing on the engiue within two feet of Engineer Norton at the time of the explosion. Three minutes prior Green noticed that the steam gauge indicated 100 ba of fiwam, and the water-glass was two-thirds full. Charlie Hoy was polling in wood at the moment of t!ie explosion. Green was hurled 50 feet forward, and landed in the snow outside the sheds. He has no recollection of the explosion. He thinks he remained unconscious five or ten minutes. At flrst be thought the sheds were falling iv, and in trying to avoid them be came near falling over a 300 ft precipiece. He heard Hoy calling for oelp, bat was too badly hurt Jo render «ny assistance. Green's coat Was blown off his back and turned inside out. One leg of his pantaloons : was literally blown off. He was badly scalded, was cut about (be left eye, and was bruised .considerably. Tbu doctor ■ays be wilt "to all right, however, in a few boor*. Hia watch stopped at 3.17 p.m., probably indicating the exact lime of ihe accident. Norton wab burled upward and backward over two box cars. One side of his he»d and face end a!! of the brain was blown away, leaving a profile of his face on. bun and perfectly natural. His shoulder, legs, and many ot the bones of his body were crushed. Hoy was ■wo thrown backward some distance, •nd was terribly crosbed and scalded. The brain protruded from a wound in the forehead ; bis nack was cut Beverly ■nd his face was badly mangled. The boot and sock were stripped from one foot, aud lay on the top of the second box car, near » portion of Norton's brains. Hoy lived five hours. He was conveyed to Summit and received medical attention and the kindliest treatment, but was either unconscious or unable to converse on account of his injuries. The force of the explosion Wf6 so great that 120 ft of the roof, aod 80ft of the lower side of the saow sheds wpre blown over ihe precipice above Donnor Lako. Large sections of roof, huge beanoe, cod fia^maots of machinery were hurled hundreds of feet- down the mountain. Fourteenincb ehed limbers were rent in two like pipe-steres ' by the 'forcVof the explo■ion. Engine No. 17 was a confused mass of rent and broken iron, fragments of car wheels and crushed beems. The boiler, lifted^rocn Its bed, was hurled ahead one hundred "feet, tbe bind cod being forwarded and resting high up against the granite composing the upper side of the enow-eheJ. The entire hind cod of ibe boiler was blown ) out. Every bolt appeared to be torn out. The tender was on top of the forward drivinp-wheels, and the other drivers were scattered all through the wreck. Tbe smoke-stack, sand-box, cab, braces, and' running gear were shivered and demolished. Blood was spattered on the beams and over the j snow. The forward car was crushed in, and a heavy beam pierced the second car. N. S. Peck, enPineer of the head engine, s&ys be beard a terrible explosion and felt Hia locomotive lifted bodily from tbe track' aod hurled forward as if shot from a mammoth cgqnon. The explosion broke tbe cooping. Luckily, tbe wheels did not get offlthe rails, and \ Mr Peck was enabled to go to the Summit and rive the, aUrou " ' •■-Fttn*- TrAa'o.-^raleiiSan- on tbe special <jar, ! fell V, slight JW when the train stopp?d. He first ran back to flag No. 8, tbep met aod cared for Green, saw that Hoy and Norton were past helping, and, knowing (bat Peck had gone to the Summit, ran all tbe way -to give ibe aTarm. Until he reached tbe Summit be supposed that both engines were destroyed. A wrecking train left Truckee as soon as Ibe news came. A physician, the Coroner, and a large number of citizenß were conveyed on the train to the scene of tbe disaster. J. W. Hoy, father, aod Willie Hoy, brother, of the wounded fireman, went on the train and were wiih the sufferer during hia last moments. Charley Hoy was 23 years ofoge, and was a steady, moral, industrious young man. His mother j mother and sitter were in Wadsworth \ as was also the wife of Mr Norton. Frank Free, Division Superintendent, at once started and engine a special car from Wadsworth with these ladies, and they reached Truckee at 8 o'clock at nigbt. Mr Norton was about 45 years of age, and was a first class engineer. He married a Miss Annie Gray, j Q Truckee, last May, and the grief of the young wife and of Mrs Hoy is heartrending. * A terrible gloom refits over tbe entire town to-night. Tbe "17 " is and old eogine.^nd last spring blew oot a ping near Reno, severely scalding PeteLiah, a freight conductor. She" was then completely overhauled in the Wadswprtb shops, and came out last summer in splendid condition. The oauae of the accident will probably retasia a myrtery, *: ■ '' I