The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-02-18
FIRE DAMP'S VICTIMS.
Dreadful Disaster in Frick's
Mine, Mount Pleasant, Penn.
Scores of Miners Perish in q
Fiery Tomb.

Company, about ten miles from this place.
1--WE want volunteers to so down tie shaft"
yelled grimmy- man at the entrance to
the Mammoth No. !, little after . O'Clock
this morning, as he flashed his torch in the
the countenances of scores Of men with
blanched faces who crowded around.
There was no lack OF response, for down IN
the earth lay the bodies Of more than hum
dred of their comrades. About O'CLOCK
there had occurred the worst disaster ever
known in bituminous coal mine in the state
OF Pennsylvania. Mammoth was the scene
Of the catastrophe.
the Southwestern Division Of the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad. There are two mines, NO.
l and No. 2, belonging to the frlck Com
,pany. No. is entered by shaft, 107 feet
deep, and No. Q is entered by q SLOPE. The
mines are connected by interior workings.
Fire damp the dread Of coal miners, has
always been remarkable at this place FOR lts
absence. No trace Of it had ever been
found In the mines, and for that reason the
common coal diggers' lamp was uSso.
Early in the morning Fire Boss " m.
Smith had made bis tour of the mines IN &C,
cordance with the laws Of the State. and had
found everything apparently In order.
The men were ordered to work. One
hundred and ten of them, it Is estimated,
went down the pit shaft where In short
time they were to meet death. They went
down with laughter and with jests.
A few minutes after o'clock there was
dull rumble like distant thunder mutterinSs
behind distant hills. Then cloud Of smoke
and dust shot up the shaft of Mammoth NO.
l 100 feet above the tall derrick.
It slowly settled, and for few moments
there was silence. Then the workers from
Mammoth No. 2 began pouring out Of the
slope. All rushed toward the shaft OF NO. l:
Many Of these men had been bruised and
shaken up by the force Of the explosion, out
none were injured seriously.
Superintendent George eighley called loT
volunteers, and at once twenty men step e
forward and we're lowered down the shaft III
the cage. which had not been injured by tn?
when the party reached the bottom of th2
shaft one glance and the odor of the deadly
flre damp told the story. Death was stalking
in the underground corridors. The party
returned to the top of the shaft, on
the ventilating fan, one OF the most
powerful in use at any coal mine, YVES
at once started up at its utmost speed
Again Superintendent keightey os;ar anh M,
party went down. The force OF the explosion
was visible on every hand.
The coal wagons used in the mines wer"
snlintered to pieces in some cages ana III
others several had been jammad together IL
a solid mass. Mules were seen Wnlcn hnH
heen driven against the ribs of the workings
With such force that their bodies lost all r.
semblancs to living reality.
Here and there lay human bodies. So:Ef
were mutilated, and all were blacKened %
the flame which had swept through I!
works,
TIE bodies of those who had been killed t.
the effects Of the explosion lay in distortai
attitudes. while those Of the others who Ia
apparently escaped the fame and conclusion.
hut had rushed from the rooms 10 which they
were working into the flats and had sue
cu1bed to the stealthy suffocating fire damp.
! Law in sleeping attitudes. Some lay at fu'
length, with heads resting upon their han :.
as Il asleep. Others were face downWh:"
with their heads in pools Of water.
One man had climbed into waG
which had not been wrecked, and there, "E
his dinner bucket by his side, had laid dow
as il to dream.
Enough had been seen for experience
miners to know that all the men in dtt
Nos. 2, and Of the Mammoth mine h'
General Manager Thomas Lynch at on
notified the managers Of the other coz
mines belonging to the Frick Company, al !
sent messengers to Mount Pleasant, Greens
burg, Scottsdale, and surrounding towrs for
physicians.
Doctors Wilson, Painter, Brown, Myer:
Mccormack and Clark at once responde
and. while they could render no aid to til
dead, took charge Of tie arrangement OF IT,
bodies. attended tho rescuers who were owe
como, while working il the mine still fou
They helped in many instances to distinguish
traces of humanity in the heaps Of debris.
When the news Of the explosion was car
ried to the miners families in the little houses
dotted on the hillsides mothers, wives, sisters.
daughters and sweethearts rushed to tn"
shaft. But the story was soon told. "All the
men in fats Nos. 2, 8 and are dead. AS fast
ms we get their bodies out and they are iGen-
titled and fixed for burial we will send them
home" was what was told them. There
was no loud expression Of emotion. A sof'
could be heard here and there, and man or
woman walked away with bowed head, re.
turning to desolate home to await the ar-
rival Of the dead. The women bore the news
heroically.
AS soon as the mine experts had arrived a
systematic plan for the recovery Of the bo-
dies was agreed upon. The first party went
down the Shaft to fat No. 4. Three hundred
feet from the shaft they found pile of
earth coal, wagons and human bodies which
blocked further progress. This was tun-
neled through, and the party turned of at
right angles along haulage road, and at the
extremity Of this there was a man with his
head blown off.
At this point several of the party, among
them Superintendents Robert Ramsey and
Laird, we're overcome by the after damp and
had to be carried back to purer DIR. The en-
trance to each room opening into three flats
was hastily closed with bratticss to give
clearer sweep to the air that was being force
into the mine. In the haulage roads of fat
No. thirty-dve bodies were found, and
fifteen were counted in ono heap in flat
No. 2.
One man had both legs blown off. The
tody Of boy was found with stick
,lriven through his arm. Time Boss VIM.
Smith was torn almost to pieces. The big
pumps, which lift tons Of water ut time.
we're broken and scattered as II they had
peen made Of straw.
1t was only few minutes after the eX-
plosion when the first body reached the
surface The body was still warm, but life
was extinct. The next man brought up ap-
peared to be still breathing, but the utmost
r.1ertions of the physicians failed to revive
him. Then began the procession OF the dead.
All day long the victims were brought up.
A morgue was hastily improvised in a
two-story frame structure formerly used ns
Ilresidence by superintendent. At 10 oclock
that night twenty-four bodies out OF sixty
had been recovered.
20 has been estimated that there ere sixty
wives and families thet are left wholly de-
pendent on the charity of the world for sus-
teuance by this disaster.
In fact, they are almost penriless, as the
plant has not been running full for some
time, and work has been exceedingly scarce
since dullness has set in in the demand for
coke.
Once or twice fires were discovered where
the explosion had ignited small heaps Of dry
coal dust. For time it was feared the hor-
Tors which attended the Dunbar disaster
were to be duplcated