Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1905 — DEAD IN A FIERY TOMB [ARTICLE]

DEAD IN A FIERY TOMB

Five Corpses Certainly, and Probably Six, in the Sealed Mine in Michigan. FLAKES EAQE IN THE DEPTHS Death Eoll Will Likely Contain Eight Names-Eight Wounded. Many Huirbeadtb Escapes—Train on tbe C., M. and St. P, Plunges Into a Ditch-One Dead. Twenty-Five Injured.

Calumet, Mleh„ Feb. 10.—Fire has succeeded the dynamite explosion which wrought terrible havoc in the North Kearsarge branch of the Osceola Consolidated mine, and all openings at the surface have been blocked. Flames are devouring the timbering, ;but will subside as soon as the air is exhausted. Tbe full list of casualties follows: Dead Matt Kaskula and Peter Kulpa, miners; Henry Missla, trammer; William Pollitt, Jr., in charge ot dynamite; John Karvela and Peter. Savala, trammers. The only tody recovered is that of Kulpa. Fatally injured—Wilfred Humphrey, burned by escaping steam. Missing Joseph Shera, trammer. Injured—Peter Barich, trammer, bruised by fall; Henry Pietela, head, serious; Joseph Moie, arm broken; Popala, drill boy, bruised; Gus Donald and Ben,Orchard, poisoned by inhaling gas; John Moor* and William Wills, suffocation, recovering.

Trammer's Remarkable Escape.

Startling stories of Lair-breadth escapes are related by men. Barieh, a trammer, was blown 200 feet by the force of the explosion, and fell into a shaft, going down 200 feet He escaped through the workings adjacent to No. 1. Urns Donald, surface foreman, and Hen Orchard, head blacksmith, organized the first relief party. Supplied with ropes, and struggling against gas and smoke, they and others penetrated the workings near the explosion and succeeded in rescuing a number of men. oDnald fell a victim to gas and was carried up, recovering after doctors bad worked over him for four hours.

Aged Father Does Bis Duty. At the sixth level several men were found overcome with gas. Their last act of self-preservation was to lock legs and arms around the ladders, and It required two men to release their holds. John Kaskala, a brother of one of the dead men, was sick and did not go to work, thereby escaping death. The mine location presents a pathetic picture. Wives, friends and sweethearts of the missing and dead wait about, hoping against hope for news of lost ones. William Pollitt, father of the man in charge of the magazine, went to the mine and insisted on helping in the search. Though along In years he crawled through gas and smoke, and after returning from a fruitless search lasting two hours,said: “I can do no more; I have done my duty.”