Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1902 — MANY BURIED ALIVE. [ARTICLE]

MANY BURIED ALIVE.

HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE IN * PENNSYLVANIA MINE. More than 125 Miners Thought to Have Died Awful Deaths from Explosion of Fire Damp-The Survivors Tell Tales of Frightful Conditions. By an exulosion in the Rolling Mill mine of the Cambria Steel Company at 12:20 o’clock Thursday afternoon an unascertained number of miners have lost their lives. It is estimated the list of dead will reach from 125 to 200. It was rumored at first that 300 had perished, but later reports show that 400 out of the 600 endangered men are safe. This appalling disaster is only less frightful than the awful calamity of May 81, 1889. The whole city of Johnstown is in mourning*. After damp prevented rescue parties from making rapid headway. The mining officials of the Cambria company say the explosion was caused by fire damp. An American miner who escaped tells of seeing a young Hungarian recently hunting for fire damp with his lamp along the cracks in the mine wall. — — Statement by Mine President. President Powell Stackhouse was seen at the mouth of the mine and gave out the following statemeht: ’•The disaster is an unusual one and came on us entirely unexpectedly. The mine had been inspected only three days ago and was pronounced in satisfactory condition. The cause is yet indefinite, but I believe it was caused by gas escaping from the fifth heading, which was closed and was not being worked because it contained gas, into the sixth heading. Disaster in the “Klondike.” The catastrophe occurred in the section of the mine known among the miners as the “Klondike.”' It is the sixth section wrat of the south main heading and is a mile and a half from the main entrance of the mine. There are two openings to the mineone, the Westmont, near the stone bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the other at Mill creek, four miles away. All the mines in the vicinity were closed as soon as news of the disaster got out, and their miners were at the scene of the explosion ready to help in the rescue work. The scenes at both openings of the mine were harrowing and indescribable.

Two miners who came out of the mine at the Mill creek opening estimate about 300 of the 600 men at work in the Cambria drift got out at that opening. Survivors Report Frightful Conditions The few survivors who have escaped from of the mine describe the condition as frightful in their nature. Outside of the “Klondike” the mines are safe and uninjured. Within the fatal limits of the mine the havoc wrought by the explosion is such as beggar description. Solid walls of masonry three feet through were torn down as though barriers of paper. The roofs of the mine were demolished and not a door remains standing. The men who escaped are familiar with the mine. They have spent years working in it. Otherwise they could never have reached the surface. Lights were Out and there was no way for them to find their way to the top had they not known the mine perfectly. John Hewlett at the time of the accident was at second right, room sixteen, two miles back in the mines. The explosion, he said, wks at right six, about 400 yards from where he was working. “There were six of us together, and as soon as we heard the explosion we pulled up stakes and got out as quick as possible. Richard Bennett was one of the men with me. After Bennett got out he went back again. After the explosion we could not see our hands before us until we reached the main heading. It appeared to be a smoky, stinky substance, whether gas or damp I could not tell. It was terrible whatever it was.” Two young men who were at work In the “Klondike” when the explosion occurred, escaped by way of an old and unused air shaft. They were dizzy and sick with the awful damp when they were found, and after their recovery they told a horrible story of how they had crawled over the dead bodies of their comrades. They could not say how many are dead, but from their tale it is almost certain that there are no living men in the mine at the present time. Tom Foster, a mine boss, and Powell Griffith, a fire boss, also escaped, and they tell the same horrible tale of the catastrophe.