OCR Text |
Show SCENES OF ARIZONA WRECK DESCRIBED BY ONE OF THE PASSENGERS LOS ANGELES. Janl 30. Lynn Helm, an attorney of this city, and hia wlfer both of whom were passengers on the westbound Sunset IJmited, wrecked near Vails, Ariz., yesterday niornipg. arrived home today. Mr. and Mrs. Helm were asleep in the rear Pullman car of taelr train and escaped without injury. He attributes at-tributes the escape of the two Pullman cars of the westbound train to the nerve of Engineer Bruce, who stuck to his. engine en-gine and sci the air brakes. Mr. Helm's story of the disaster is as follows: "The crash came at 3:11. as was discovered discov-ered later by the stopped watch of one of the dead engineers. There were three distinct shocks, the first resulting from the setting of the powerful air brakes. 60 suddenly was the air thrown on that the rear trucks of our car leaped Into the air, seemingly two feet. This was the greatest great-est shock to us. Then followed two other jars. "I looked out of the window Immediately Immediate-ly and observed a great glare of light. It was caused by the burning cars. sThe baggage, postal -and day coaches seemed to Hash up in one blaze at the touch of the engines. It was the most sudden con-natrration con-natrration I ever witnessed. "There were no frroans from the twenty or more victims buried In that burning mass. All must have been killed instantly. instant-ly. The flames were so fierce that those who were not killed Instantly by the shock must have perished within a minute e.-two e.-two from the Intense blast of heat which swept over the wreck. The. grand crash must have signalled the death of all, and therefore the complete destruction of carst and Inmates mercifully saved victims from the tortures of the flames. "Although efforts werei. made to search the wreck for passengers, the heat of the flames precluded this. The passengers who were unhurt Immediately arranged mattresses on the ground and conveyed the wounded to the improvised couches. We saw nothing of the victims in the burning-cars. The second section of our train came up and removed all passen gers and wounded to Tucson Immediately. "Passengers In the uninjured Pullmans, almost without exception, sustained bruised heads. It was u matter of Ken- 1 eral comment afterward that each passenger pas-senger had one or more bumps on his head, caused by the sudden stopping of the cars, which threw the sleeping passengers pas-sengers against the headboards with considerable con-siderable force. "I saw one narrow escape. The agent for W'tila,! Far no & Co. whs In the baggage bag-gage fir and the shock threw about a ton or trunks and grips upon him. He literally was burted deep with bugaee. A bapajreman pushed the obstructions off and the' Wclls-Fargo man came out without Injury. "I saw one fellow come through a car with the fire coming right behind him. He said he had waited to get his shoes and while groping for them, dropped his pock-etbook pock-etbook containing all his money and ticket. The fire became so threatening that he was forced to leave his valuables." valua-bles." 1 |