A BIG OIL FIRE AT SCHELL CITY FRIDAY MORNING

Cars Loaded With Oil Burst Into Flames Following Crash

of One Freight Train Into Another On the Tracks.

     A huge fire, capable of destroying at least a part of the town had the wind been in a different direction, was still burning in Schell City Friday afternoon following the ramming of one M. K. & T. freight train by another there that morning.

     One northbound train had stopped at the Schell City depot on the main line, and a second train, also loaded with oil and headed north, rammed into it.

     The caboose and three loaded oil cars at the rear of the standing train were telescoped and ignited by the impact. The locomotive, tender and four or five cars of the second train were derailed and also caught fire. All cars were loaded with oil, believed to be crude oil.

     Trainmen quickly hooked onto the undamaged portion of the rear train and hauled the undamaged ears out of reach of the fire, while the train in front was uncoupled from the burning cars and pulled away to safety.

     No one was in the caboose of the train in front to be injured or killed by the crash, and the fireman and engineer, whose names were not learned here, jumped from the cab just before the crash. The engineer was understood not to have been injured, but the fireman was reported to have received a broken ankle in the jump that saved his life.

     Flames enveloped the entire string of wrecked cars within a few moments, and the cars and locomotive became a flaming mass of twisted, red-hot steel and burning oil almost immediately.

     The wreck occurred about a block or a block and a half south of the depot within the limits of the town. The produce and feed store of W. H. Rapps was burned to the ground.

     A call was sent to Nevada for the local fire department to assist in fighting the flames, but local firemen did not dare respond and leave Nevada without fire protection at a time when two or three fires have been occurring daily.

     Section crews from Walker, Harwood and Nevada were rushed to the scene of the accident, but reports were not available through wire service since both telegraph and telephone service were discontinued because wires were down as a result of the fire.

     Flames from the burning wreckage and oil were said to have leaped 30 to 50 feet in the air, and smoke was clearly discernible from the rifle range at Camp Clark, also from other points about Nevada.

     Howard Runyan and Roy Belknap flew to the scene of the fire and other Nevadans drove to Schell City to get a first-hand view of the fire.

Saturday's Daily Mail and Post.

     Still burning at noon today was the fire which Friday destroyed seven cars of oil, a caboose, locomotive and tender on the M. K. & T. line at Schell City.

     Although the fire was not so great as it was Friday, it was reported this morning still to be burning furiously, fed on the oil from the ill-fated cars that were wrecked when one freight train ran into the freight ahead of it at the M. K. & T. depot about 8:15 o'clock Friday morning.

     Various stories of how the accident occurred were current in Schell City but none was authenticated by an authoritative statement on the part of railroad officials. However, it was known that the first freight train had been having trouble with a hot box or a brake rod, and that the train had been stopped to make repairs.

     It was believed one of the crew had dropped back to flag the second freight which was known to be approaching Schell City at the time, and that the crew member had not had time to get back and set his signals of warning when the second train swept into view at full speed and was unable to stop before crashing into the other train.

     The engineer and fireman of the second train jumped after the engineer had set the air brakes, and neither was seriously injured. A brakeman, first reported to have received a broken ankle, had only a dislocated ankle.

     Train service over the lines was resumed at noon Friday when a passenger train, and later some freight trains, were routed around the flaming mass of twisted steel over a siding track. Two trains of loaded gasoline cars, however, were held up in sidings all day Friday until the flames subsided to where the trains could go safely around the fire.

Southwest Mail and The Weekly Post, Nevada, Missouri; Friday 20 November 1942 page 5.

Schell City, Missouri 1942 train wreck pictures contributed by Betty Hicks.

Sarah West Marquis, James G. Birney Marquis and their daughter Estella in the Schell City Post Office in about 1912. Birney Marquis was Postmaster from Appointment 21 August 1897 - Presiding October 1, 1912. Estella was publisher of the The Schell City News for several years. Contributed by Betty Hicks. (Notice little boy's face peeking through window.)

Schell City School building from copied from postcard. Contributed by Betty Hicks.