Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1910 — SIX MEN KILLED IN AN ILLINOIS MINE [ARTICLE]

SIX MEN KILLED IN AN ILLINOIS MINE

Twenty-Five Injured and Several Otters Missing. A terrific explosion of gas occurring iu the Shoal Creek Coal company’s mine at Panama, lIL, forty-two miles northeast of St. ouis, cost the lives of six men, injured twenty-five more, and several are missing. The mines principal owners are Chicagoans. The disaster occurred while about 350 men were working in the mine. It was caused by a miner named Raffel Horn anio entering a room which,. had been abandoned for some time to get tools he had left there. His “naked” lamp light caused the gas to explode with terrific force filling the rooms and entries with noxious vapors and causing them to be blocked with debris. Some sixty men were working in that part of the mine. Those in other parts were not endangered. Jay Wilbur was overcome by gas in the mine and lost his life attempting to save tha imperiled men. Superintendent C. F. Grabruck, who was in a rescue party, was brought to the surface unconscious and for a time was thought to be dead. He is in a precarious condition. The body of Romanio, whose lamp caused the explosion, has not yes been found.