Two Men Killed and Many Injured.
Passenger Train Passing at Time
No One Aboard Escaped Injury or Shock.
List of Injured is a Lengthy One
Many Prominent Virginia and West Virginians Among Those Injured. Mangled Bodies of the Two Men Killed Were Found Near the Wrecked Magazine.
(By Associated Press.)
Roanoke, Va., July 18. – By the explosion of a large quantity of dynamite and blasting powder stored in a magazine near Pearisburg, Giles county, this afternoon, two men were killed outright, sixteen were more or less injured, and about hundred others severely shocked. West bound passenger train, No. 1, on the main line of the Norfolk and Western was going at full speed past the magazine, which was located 200 yards from the tracks, when the explosion occurred. The windows were all broken on the train, and the coaches in other ways damages [sic], and not a single person on the train escaped injury or shock.
The dead:
James Phillips, white, Blair, Va.
George Noel, colored, Elliston, Va.
The injured:
R. H. Roup, Christiansburg, Va.
Ira Wilson, Radford, Va.
J. W. Grover, Bluefield, W. Va.
S. H. Gregor, Tazewell, Va.
O. C. Jenkins, general manager Bluefield Coal and Coke Company, Bluefield, W. Va.
J. C. Jones, Radford, Va.
F. M. M’Calsey, Roanoke, Va.
Sherman Hunt, Shellsville, Va.
George Witt, Keystone, W. Va.
W. G. Colhuno, Belspring, Va.
E. S. Baird, Hinton, W. Va.
F. E. Dupuy, Hinton, W. Va.
Burnett Reid, Bluefield, W. Va.
Gfiff [sic] F. Carnes, Radford, Va.
W. L. Blackwell, Saltville, Va.
Philips and Noel were laborers, and their mangled bodies were found near the wrecked magazine.
A special train, with surgeons on board, conveyed the wounded to Bluefield, where they were placed in a hospital. It is not known what caused the explosion.
Mr. R. I. Roup, who was injured in the Pearisburg explosion, is a prominent lawyer of Christiansburg, Va., and has for some time been the correspondent of the Times-Dispatch from that place.
The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), 29 July 1903.