People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1893 — DEATH IN A COAL PIT. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IN A COAL PIT.

Three Hundred Miner* Caught by an Explosion in a Welsh Colliery -Seventy F*eape, But It I* Thought the Beat Have Perished. London, April 12.—A spark from an engine ignited the gas in the coal pit near Pont-y-Pridd, Wales, and caused the gas to explode. A large number of miners were at work at the time and the explosion caused terrible havoc. The situation is appalling. Three hundred miners are entombed in the mine. The engine house is in flames and there is great fear that hundreds have perished. The rescuers who went down were driven back without being able to bring up more than five of the dead, and the fate of the other miners is in doubt.

The most agonizing scenes are witnessed and throngs of men, women and children, relatives of those below, arc crowded about the mouth of the coal pit The pit is worked in sections, one being above another. -The fire resulting from the explosion broke out in the eastern section. From this section seventy men succeeded in reaching the surface through the main dip working, led by a miner who knew the roads. They had a terrible struggle to get out, forcing their way through fire and smoke. Many of them were scorched and all were terribly exhausted when they emerged to safety. They brought no good news as to those who were left behind, but, on the contrary, expressed their dread that all those in the mine had perished. The first alarm was given at 2:30 p. m. The sparks from an engine in a 4-foot seam are supposed to have ignited a pile of cotton waste. The flames spread to the woodwork and finally ignited the inflammable gas in the seam. Flames and smoke gave to the men at work in the seam the first warning of approaching danger. All ran toward the landing. Many were overtaken by the fire and smoke, fell, and were left to their fate by their comrades in advance of them. Comparatively few of the men who were in the seam at the time of the explosion reached the landing. At the entrance of the pit a rescuing party was formed by the pit surveyor. The party got as far as the landing at the seam where the fire started, but was driven back almost immediately by the dense smoke issuing from the seam. The surveyer took his men back to the surface. After a half-hour’s rest they went down again and forced their way ten yards into the workings. They found four dead bodies, which they brought back with them. Attempts to go farther into the workings were vain, as the woodwork was burning and large masses of ruins were falling incessantly from the roof. One of the rescue party, who ventured too far, was killed. The men who saved themselves immediately after the fire broke out were too much confused and frightened to observe the positions of their fellowworkingmen. They are unable to give any clear account of the distribution of the miners, and the work of rescue must therefore proceed under all the difficulties of uncertainty.