The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-01-12

GREAT DESTRUCTION OF VALUABLE PROP
E4TY--ALT. ATTEMPTS TO PUT OUT
THE FIRE UNSUCCESSFUL.


A special dispatch to the Harrisburg Pa
triot from Ly yl<ens, Pa, dated January 9th,
SAYS that the Short Mountain and Lykens
Valley mines which produce $50, 200 TO
200, 600 tons of coal \ year have been on fire
since Monday afternoon, and the Lykens
Valley coal company which operates the
colleries has already suffered a loss of sew
eral hundred Thousand dollars which prom
ises to be largely augmented. Several men
who have been driven from tie mines by
the fire are engaged day and night in efforts
to stop the work of destruction, but the
difficulty of reaching it has rendered their
labors only partially successful. The
first four days they made no impression on
the fire. Appearances to-day indicate that
their work is having beneficial effect but
;he temporary check has not relieved the
people here of the fear that all the collieries
III this county may be visited by the fire.
They are connected by subterranesNl pas
sages, and should an uufavorable draft en-
sue they would all be in danger of destruc-
ton. The principal efforts of the miners
are directed towards placing instructions
to the sweep Of the fire eastward. where the
Big Lick and Williamstown colheries are
located, three and five miles above this
town. About thirty miners are constantly
stationed in the Lykens Valley slope, to
properly handle the hose through which
so dense in the locality that they are occa-
sionally Frustrated by it's effects and drawn
i'm cais Ia the surface to be relieved by
others. Two small streams have been di-
verted from their original channels and the
water conducted into the burning mines,
several lines of wooden troughs carrying it
to points where it is supposed TO be most
needed, At the mouth OF each mine is
large slope house, into which cars loaded
- 4. ~. tod
structures have been disconnected with the
slopes to save them from destruction. n
similar precaution would have prevented
the burning of a large engine house and
great damage to the machinery which cost
about $50, 900. Between eighty and uinety
mules in the burning mines are supposed to
have been suffocated, all way of egress hav-
ing been cut off by the fire. That no hu-
man lives have been lost is in n great meas
ure attributable to the fact that the fire
occurred Oh a holiday when the mines were
almost entirely deserted. There is a diff
ference of oDii.ion as to how the fire origi-
mated. One theory is that spark from
miners lamp started it, while another is
that the heat from one of the pumping en-
ginrs in the mine WAS the cause. The fire
spread with remarkable rapidity, ascending
to the top of the Short Mountain slope,
nearly five hundred yards from the sup
posed point of origin, i'll six seven hours.
In addition to the large quantity Of coal
and timber consumed, much damage must
necessarily have been done othe machiue-
ry in the mines both by fire and water.
Should the fire be brought undor control,
which is by no means certain, it would be
impossible 30 repair the damage and resume
mining operations during the winter
About nine hundred men were employed in
the burning mines. There are four aut hra-
cite coal mines in Dauphin county which
employ between $500 and 5000 men. The
Williamstown colliery, five miles above this
place. is the largest in the world, and pro-
duced about 240, 900 tons last year, and the
year before 30i. 900 tons. The total ship
ments from the four mines last year were
800, 900 tonS-a decrease Of 1872, 600 as COM
pared with previous year. When the
mines are kept in steady operation the bus
mess of this coal reg ion amounts to from
S1,5OO, 900 to 80, oo0.0 900. annually. In this
town from $50, 600 to S40 900 are paid to
miners monthly,