Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1905 — FIVE MINERS ARE BLOWN TO PIECES [ARTICLE]

FIVE MINERS ARE BLOWN TO PIECES

Lightning Strikes • Powder House in Which Dynamite Was Stored— Horrible Sight. Des Moines, la., Jjgly_2o. —Five minors were literally blown to pieces by the explosion of twenty-five pounds of dynamite in a storage powder house at the West Riverside coal mine, two miles west of the city at 6 o'clock in the morning. The dead are: Charles Brown, engineer, leaves wife and daughter; Luke Miller, sinker, bachelor; Harry Belknap, sinker, bachelor; Dell Vance, sinker, wife and four children survice him; George Arrowood, pumpman, leaves wife and four children.

Heads, arms and limbs were scattered around for a distance of 500 feet. Not .a soul knew of the explosion until the appearance of the day shift, at 0:30, when the horrible spectacle presented itself. The men—five in number —were engaged in sinking a new shaft, and during the early morning hour a severe rain storm cam? up which compelled the men to stop work. They sought shelter from the storm in the powder house. While in the house the lightning struck a tree near the building and from there ran to the house, igniting the dynamite as well as two kegs of powder. Not a piece of wood larger than a foot long remains of the building. The nearest house was 800 feet away and the inmates knew nothing of the accident, attributing tiie noise to the bolt of lightning.