Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1910 — SEVEN MEN KILLED IN MINE EXPLOSION [ARTICLE]

SEVEN MEN KILLED IN MINE EXPLOSION

Disaster Occurs in a Colliery at Wilkesharre, Pa. The bodies of seven mine workers killed by the explosion In the No. 6 colliery of the Lehigh & Wilkesharre Coal company have been brought to the surface. There were n)o injured, every man in the zone of Mie explosion being killed. Air passages were /built /and hose taken down as a means oKcarrying a stream of fresh air into the explosion zone at the head of No. 12 plane. So great was the quantity of fire damp, however, that It was six hours after the explosion before it could be dissipated sufficiently to permit the rescuers to reach the top of the plane. The bodies of the seven men were found lying along the plane. They had been suffocated by the fire damp. The explosion had been confined to a small area but the air conditions made it possible for the suffocating after damp to gather so quickly that the men had no time to run far before they were overcome. MosJ of the men were lying face downward with their hands covering their faces as if to shut out the fire damp. , Six widows and twenty-four children mourn All but one of the seven were married. The men were Owen Griffith, who leaves a wife and one child; H. Price, a wife and six children; C. Gaffney, wife and three children; William Jenkins, wife and two children; Evan Williams, wife and seven children; William Jones, wife and five children, and Jno. Owen Jones, single. General Manager Huber is unable to account for the accident.