Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-03-20
THE y1Re1SIA MINE HORROR.


What . Visit to tho Scene Revoals-The I'm.
frances to the Mine Sealed Up as the Only
Means of Smothering tho Raging Fires
| Within-Ali Efforts at Recovering the
Bodies Of the Victims Necessarily Aban.-
| doned.
PoCHAoNrAs, VA, March Is.
A visit to the mines this morning pre-,
sented to the gaze spectacle that battles
all attempts at description. From noun
tain peak to mountain base were evidences
of frightful havoc wrought by the exc
plosions. Hillsides in every direction
were strewn with debris, blackened with
coal dust blown with terrific force from the
entrance to the mines. The scene of de-
stluction, humiliation and desolation is
APPALLING to the last degree. When atten-
ton is attracted to the blackened and
smoking entrance to the mines and one re-
fleets upon the horrible fate of the 154
human beings whose charred and mangled
remains are buried and smouldering in
that charnel-house, one need not be as
tonished if the stoutest hearts quail and
people shrink from nearer approach to the
awful scene.
The very trees on the mountain sides
that have withStood the storms OF ages
We're riven, torn and blasted, and their
branches scattered in every conceivable
direction. Portions of the wreck were
blown clear over the mountain ridge
fronting the approaches to the ruins and
picked up more than half a mile dis
tant Even coal dust was blown over
the mountain and covers the earth on the
opposite side to the depth of half an inch,,
and the blackened and rent overcoat of q.
dead miner was picked up in gulch
nearly half mile away. All the labor
ers' shanties in the vicinity were more or
less wrecked, and those on the line Of
the mine approaches completely demol-
ished. So terrific was the force of the
explosion that windows in the house
of farmer two miles off were shivered.
A few minutes before the explosion q
train of coal cars had been backed into
one entrance to the mine and the locomo-
tive had moved some distance down the
track. Many of the cars were hurled
down the tracks and wrecked and the de-
bris thrown great distance upon the
mountain sides. Heavy axleS were
wrung and twisted into all sorts and
shapes. Wheels were cracked and bro
ken. The gulches in front of the mines
were filed with the wrcckage.
The Pocahontas mine embraces an
area of twenty-five miles; that is to say,
a person traversing the chambers and
galleries of the mines would have COW
cred that distance. There are five en-
frances, every one of which seemed as
though a pent-up fury was within. The.
entrances were all filed with foul air,
which renders the recovery of dead
bodies impossible. Every attempt made
to enter the mines has been attended with
bad results, and in several instances the
men barely escaped dying from the over
towering gas. Physicians were kept,
busy yesterday ministering to such cases.
The fartheSt entry was by Hungarian,
whose son WAS buried in the mines.
Nearly crazed by grief, he could not be re-
strained and penetrated to a considerable
distance, but was eventually forced to re-
tire. He reported seeing number of
bodies in one chamber, torn and mangled
beyond all semblance of recognition.
One was that of a youth aged thirteen,
employed as door boy, who was the pet
of the mining camp. The little fellow
had just entered the mine when the ex-.
ploSion occurred.
Colonel George Dodds, of the Midloth.-
ian mines and other experienced mining
engineers visited the mines this morning
and made an examination. 1t was decided
that it was unsafe to attempt to use the
ian, and orders were Immediately issued
to have the mines closed and sealed as the
only means of SURPRISING the fires which
are burning. The higher coal drifts are
not burning. 1t is the fine coal at the
bottom of the mines which is afire. The
entrances will be tightly sealed so as to-
smother the fire. In one of the entrances
a tube will be inserted to permit the es--
cape of gas.
Most of the miners killed were unmarried.
The night force was mainly composed of
the youngest and most vigorous men,.
Hampton, the night foreman, leaves an
invalid wife and several helpless children
One of the young men killed was the only
son of widow whose husband perished
In the mines several weeks ago.