Fire Adds to the Horror.

The special train left Utica this morning on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, and when it reached Stroudsburg, Penn., a Pennsylvania Railroad crew took charge of it and was to have run it through to Philadelphia. The train was traveling at fifty miles an hour and the passengers were enjoying the early Spring scenery along the picturesque Delaware River Valley when at 2:45 o'clock, in taking a curve where men had been repairing the tracks, there was a sudden jar and the excursionists in each car were thrown together in a heap. The locomotive jumped the track carrying four cars with it.

Hardly had the train come to a stop at the foot of the embankment before fire started and spread so rapidly that some of the imprisoned passengers were burned to death. As the train left the track it side-swiped and broke a tank of oil which ran over the wreckage and added to the fury of the flames. The fire started at both ends of the train, hot coals from the firebox of the engine starting the fire at that end and flames from the stoves in the dining car starting the destruction at the rear.

Physicians were called from this city and every town within a radius of ten miles, and they went to the scene of the wreck in automobiles and special trains run over the Pennsylvania Railroad. Twenty minutes after the accident there were a score of physicians on the ground. They did everything possible to relieve the injured, and made them ready for the trip to the Easton Hospital.

Every farmhouse in the vicinity was quickly transformed into an improvised hospital, and farmer's wagons were pressed into service as ambulances. Many of the injured remain with the farmers, and at Martin's Creek Hotel.

Telegraph and telephone wires were torn down, and it was impossible to reach the outside world. Communication was finally restored to Easton, and from this city passengers sent messages to their families.

Men and women who were on the train say the scene that followed the accident is beyond their powers of description. Willing hands began the work of rescue as soon as they were able, and had it not been for the heroic efforts of the men and women, some of whom were cut and bleeding from their own wounds, the loss of life would have been appalling.

Injured Help the Rescuers.

Unconscious forms were pinioned beneath the wreckage with the flames leaping toward them, when the less seriously injured, at great risk to their own lives, plunged into the debris, worked the unconscious victims loose, and carried them beyond reach of the flames.

One young woman was found singing and dancing on the railroad track a half mile from the scene of the wreck. She was cut, bruised, and burned, but in her hysterical condition did not appear conscious of pain of of what had happened.

Priests from the Easton and Phillipsburg, N. J., parishes were taken to Martin's Creek in automobiles and worked among the injured.

When a train carrying the injured reached Easton, ambulances and motor cars were on hand to get them to the hospital with all possible speed. The sisters and nurses at the institution had prepared for their coming, and as soon as they arrived made them as comfortable as possible.

Person, the conductor, was operated upon, and died at 8 o'clock to-night. The surgeons found a compound fracture at the base of the brain.

Dr. Budd J. Reaser of Martin's Creek was the first physician on the scene. He drove over from is office in his automobile, but by the time he reached the wreck the cars were a mass of flames ran through the train like a blaze on a dry prairie.

Men and women were in a state of panic, he said, and some were unconscious on the ground where they had been placed by others or had fallen in a swoon. Dr. Reaser organized a first-aid corps and put willing hands to work in a systematic manner. The women were looked after first, and the doctor had them brought to him, and he treated them as best he could under the distressing circumstances.

Thrown Through a Window.

Vincent B. Brown, Principal of School 18, Utica, was talking with representatives of the Pennsylvania and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroads when the crash occurred. He was thrown through a window and landed on a pile of rocks. He says he was dazed for a time, and as soon as he could began the work of rescue. He kicked in windows that had not already been broken and dragged people out. The fire spread with alarming rapidity, and this spurred those who had escaped to renewed efforts.

Dr. Coxton, a woman dentist of Utica, was one of those who had a narrow escape. She did heroic work among the injured, and to her efforts many of the imprisoned passengers owe their lives. Norwich, and Clinton.

Driven Back by the Flames.

Charles Poulson of Brainerd's Station, opposite Martins' Creek, was one of the first to reach the wreck. He says that the cars were already on fire and the shrieks of the frightened women were terrifying. He ran to the overturned cars, smashed the glasses in the windows, and assisted fully a score of the imprisoned passengers out of the coaches.

Poulson declares he saw at least three women pinned down under one of the ends of the second coach. He also says he heard a cry for help from under the car. He made two or three attempts to rescue the women, but was driven back by the flames.

The crew of the dining car, composed of nine colored men, did heroic work in rescuing women from the cars, and four or five of the waiters have blistered hand as a result of their fight.

There was a terrific explosion at the scene of the wreck to-night. The flash was seen for some distance and the report was heard several miles away. There is no communication with say that either the boiler of the wrecked locomotive or a gas tank exploded.

To-night the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ran a special train from Stroudsburg to the wreck and started back to Utica with all those who had remained at Martin's Creek and who were able to make the journey.

W. F. Cummings, Division Passenger Agent for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western at Syracuse, had charge of the excursion party. He was badly hurt, but he refused to go to the hospital and insisted on returning to Syracuse to carry word to the families of the injured. An automobile took him to Washington, N. J., where a night express on the Lackawanna was flagged and he was taken aboard.

The New York Times, New York, NY 30 Apr 1911