Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-17
THIRTY-THREE KILLED.
Miners Meet a Horrible Death in the
Farm Hill CoIliery.


Farm Hill Colliery.
FIRE DAMP IGNITED By LAMA FLOOD OF
WATER PREcEDEs THE TERRIBLE EXPLOSION
HERO PERIsHEs TRYING TO SAVE TWENTY
MINERs-KILLED BY THE AWFUL Conclusion.
Yesterday morning at lilo O'Clock an explo-
| sion shook the miners dwellings on Hill Farm,
| in Fayette county, near Dunbar, Pa, and hun
dreds of affrIghted persons, who knew the
sound too well, feared another mine disaster,
| and they reasoned far too we'll. In a moment
the fearful news had spread that the Hill Farm
mines, owned by Philadelphians, had exploded.
The low browed hill from which the slope
entered shook from mouth to pit and the
score Of miners houses lining the fatal hill
shook for a moment and then poured out their
frenzied inmates by the hundreds.
A rush was made for the mouth Of the pit,
but ingress was impossible, as smoke in dense
volumes issuing forth. Fifty-two miners
had gone to work and were in the slope when
the explosion occurred. OF these ffty-two
eighteen were il the left heading and thirty
four in the right heading. Those in the LEFT
heading got out all right. The rest of the
others were cut off and only two escaped
At IN the morning the gang turned in at the
mines, the smaller gang drifting off to the left,
Z IL
drifted to the right and descended some 800
feet from the surface, and at least mile from
the opening. These two drifts connected.
but the connection is from the main stem. half
a mile from the entrance. The mine it seems,
had been troubled with water and an air shaft
had been drilled from the surface to the juno
ture of the right and left shafts, where the
water seemed to be most abundant. As the
miners branched off they knew that air
hole had been drilled there that had not yet
broken int he. MIN hut thntH M
know that the shaft was to be broken into that
day. miner named Kerwin had been left i'll
the right drift, near where that branch joined
the mines exit, and in the course of his labors
broke into the perpendicular shaft
FLOOD OF WATER.
The moment this was broken into a flood of
water gushed out and Kerwin and man named
Londy standing by yelled ont for some one to
save the men in the right drift, as the water was
pouring down the hill i'll a stream and he feared
they would be drowned. Young David Hays,
who had seen the affair, leaped forward and
turned to the left drift i'll a deluge of water to
warn his endangered comrades below. Just as
he passed the air shaft that had been broken
into the rush of waters had changed to the
ugly roar of a flood. which blanched the cheeks
of the men who stood behind and toward the
light. The flow of water had changed to
deadly volume of fire damp, and as young Hays
swung down the shaft flash of blazing light
L \
seemed. The daring youth carried an open
burning miners lamp in his hat and he had
hardly taken a step beyond the roaring shaft
when the spark ignited reservoir Of the deadly
fluid fire damp that had already accumulated
and he sank a corpse near the men whom he
had hoped to save and whom he certainly
doomed In an instant an unquenchaSle fire
spranS up in the 9-foot vein, just between the
main entrance and on the right drift, forever
shutting off the thirty-two men imprisoned
there
DASHED TO HIS DEATH.
Poor old David Hays, the father of the miss
ing hero, crazed by the death of his son, dashed
into the sulphurous smoke and strangling fire
damp only to fall blindly by the side of his son,
and TO be drawn out. an hour later. with James
Shearn, both recognized only by their wives.
The fire, famed by air from the main drift and
from the fatal shaft itself, soon sprang into an
awful confagration.
The miners from the left drift escaped black
ened and bruised. but safe, and they tell a
fearful story of the scene. Just beyond the
blazing coal ON the right could be seen a score
OF terrified faces walled III by flames that no
man could pass. Brave hearts and willing
hands were not wanting on the outside of the
mine, and Clerk Cook of the mine. with the
mine inspector himself, Keaghley. headed a
party of one hundred who entered the main
shaft. and after cropping on for quarter of
mile at least. were driven back again and again
by the deadly gas. only to recover breath for a
moment and again plunge IN.
REsCUER OVERCOME.
They finally came upon two bodies and they
were brought to the opening of the miEe.
They proved to be those of Shearn and HAYS
the elder. The volunteer corps worked stead
lily from noon until late last night, with no re-
suit but the two dead above named. and each
trip but brought deeper despair to those
above, and showed there was no hope and no
one alive below.
The corps of one hundred was changed
again and again as each exhausted squad stag
gered TO the outer air, but all in vain One
man. Kelly, who had entered several times
finally from sheer exhaustion fell into an open
pit and was drawn out fatally injured.
At midnight the smoke and gas from the
right shaft poured up the main exit in a broken
volume, and, after trials almost beyond human
endurance. the rescuinG party gave up all
hopes of recovering their comrades bodies
from that entrance and turned their attention
to the Ferguson mine, II miles away.
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