The west-bound Norfolk and Western passenger train on Saturday afternoon, when passing the suburbs of Pearisburg, Giles county, was badly damaged by an explosion of a powder and dynamite magazine located about 200 feet away. Two men at the magazine were killed and fifteen passengers wounded. The windows of the train were broken and the coaches in other ways damaged, and not a single person on the train, which carried over a hundred passengers, escaped injury or a bad shock. Several of the injured may die. It is not known what caused the explosion. The magazine was the property of L. H. Vaughn & Co., who have the double tracking contract on the section of the railway near Pearisburg.
Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria, D. C., 20 July 1903.