Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-08-02
A FIERY PHENOMENON,
The Thrilling Experience of Two Virginia
City Miners.


City Miners.
A phenomenal incident occurred on
the $50 level on the Chollar mine, the
particulars of which have been dis
closed by two badly scared miners
who played leading parts in the sensa-
tional underground drama.
George Murray and Tom Bailey
We're engaged in running the main
drift north on this level-which is in
several hundred feet from the station,
in new ground and newly timbered
from one end to the other. They had
fixed everything for the firing of a
round of holes in the face of the drift
and retired to the station to cat supper
and give the powder fumes a chance
to work off
On returning, Murray lowered his
candle in the mass of debris to ascer-
tain the result of the blast, when he
lost his candle and portions of his
eyelashes and eyebrows by the sud-
den ignition Of volume of gas which
belched forth and roared like a vol
cano.
The situation was appalling. The
flames covered the entire face of the
drift and were driven back with terri
&c force to the upper timbers several
feet from the face.
Murray and Bailey were 80 awe
struck and spellbound that for few
moments they could do nothing. FL
nally one of them rushed back to the
station and returned with his arms
full of hand grenades. These were
thrown with great force and broken at
the face of the drift, but it seemed like
adding fuel to the flames. Pieces of
broken glass could be heard jingling
against the top of the drift, as if the
frantic element was laughing at all
efforts to check it.
Seeing nothing but terrible catas-
trophe before them, one of the miners
was dispatched for the shift boss
while the other stood guard over the
fearful fire at a distance of twenty
feet-the heat being so intense that it
was impossible for him to get nearer.
Re-enforcements shortly arrived
with more hand grenades which
proved fully as useless as the first.
An excited conference was held,
which resulted in miner being sent
on top with a Babcock extinguisher,
while another was instructed to have
every preparation made for blowing
out timbers and bulkheading against
! the flames.
When the extinguisher arrived on
the scene stream from the machine
was turned on the face of the drift,
and in a few moments the fire was
subdued; but whether this result
was brought about by the exhaustion
of the gas or the efficiency of the ex.
tinguisher is question.
But probably the strangest part OF
the story is yet to be told. The spread
eagle flame was dazzling in its brill
iancy-lnore like that Of electric light
than gas light.
There was no smoke from it and nc
smell, but the miners who fought il
experienced partial blindness and Sc
we're headaches. An examination OF
the timbers-which it was thought
must surely be badly burned, although
green-revealed the fact that while
blistering hot, they were not even
scorched, showing that the flames
Rugged the ground above pretty
closely.
Murray and Bailey estimate thai
enough gas was consumed in the forty
minutes to have supplied the whole Of
Virginia City with Ii ght for six months.
Had such a thing happened in
old ground or anywhere adjacent to
old timber (Which exhale gaseous sub
stances, the miners say they could
have accounted for it to some extent,
but as above stated, both ground and
timbers were new in this case.
No such phenomenon has ever be-
fore been seen or heard of in any OF
the Comstock mines, and the men
who witnessed it are not eager for a
repetition of their experience. They
have passed over considerable ground
in the same drift since without any
thing of the kind having again occur
red, and are now waiting to hear some
of the knowing ones explain the mys.
tery.-Virginia City New Territorial
Enterprise.