Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-02-13
FIRE DAMP'S VICTIMS.
Dreadful Disaster i'm Frick' s
Mine, Mount Pleasant, Penn.
Scores of Miners Perish in a
Fiery Tomb.

gas which exploded this morning IN the
mammoth shaft of the II. G. Frick Coke
Company, about ten miles from this place.
I'VE want volunteers to go down tie shaftr'
yelled agrimmy-faced man at the entrance TO
the Mammoth No. !. a 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 a hum
dred of their comrades. About 9 O'Clock
there had occurred the worst disaster ever
known in a bituminous coal mine in the State
of PennSylvanla Mammoth was the scene
of the catastrophe.
1t is situated on the Sewickley branch Of
the Southwestern Division o. the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad. There are two mines, No.
and No. 2, belonging to the Prick Com
pany. No. l is entered by shaft, 1UG feet
deep, and No. 2 is entered by slope. Inc
mines are connected by interior workings.
Fire damp, the dread of coal miners, has
always been remarkable at this place for its
absence. No trace of it had ever been
found in the mines, and for that reason the
common coal diggers lamp was used.
Early in the morning Fire Boss VIM.
Smith had made his tour of the mines in ac
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, 1t is estimated,
went down the pit shaft, where in a 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 mutterings
behind distant hills. Then a cloud of smoke
and dust shot up the shaft of Mammoth Nc.
l 100 feet above the tall derrick
It slowly settled, and for a 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, but
none were injured seriously.
Superintendent George Keighley called for
volunteers, and at once twenty men stepped
forward and were lowered down the shaft in
the cage, which had not been I'M ured by the
explosion.
When the party reached the bottom of the
shaft one glance and the odor of the deadly
fire damp told the story. Death was stalking
in the underground corridors. The party
returned to the top of the shaft, and
the ventilating fan, one Of the most
powerful in use at any coal mine, was
at once started up at its utmost speed.
Again Superintendent. Keighley and his
party went down. The force Of the explosion
was visible on every hand.
The coal wagons used in the mines were
splintered to pieces in some cages, aud In
others several had been damned together in
a solid mass. Mules were seen which had
been driven against the ribs of the workings
with such force that their bodies lost all re-
semblance to living reality.
Here and there lay human bodies. Some
were mutilated, and all were blackened by
the fame which had swept through the
works.
The bodies of those who had been killed by
the effects of the explosion lay in distorted
attitudes. while those of the others who had
apparently escaped the flame and conclusion,
but had rushed from the rooms in which they
were working into the flats and had sue
nod 70 no y
lay in sleeping attitudes. Some lay at full
length, with heads resting upon their hands,
as if asleep. Others were face downward,
with their heads in pools Of water.
One man had climbed into a wagon
which had not been wrecked, and there with
his dinner bucket by his side, had laid down
as if to dream.
Enough had been seen for experienced
miners to know that all the men in fats
Nos. 2, 8 and of the Mammoth mine had
persisted.
General Manager Thomas Lynch at once
notified the managers Of the other coal
mines belonging to the Frick Company and
sent messengers to Mount Pleasant, Greens
burg, Scottsdale, and surrounding towns for
physicians.
Doctors Wilson. Painter, Brown, Myers,
Mccormack and Clark at once responded,
and, while they could render no aid to the
dead, took charge of the arrangement of the
bodies attended the rescuers who were over
They helped in many instances to distinguish
traces of humanity i'll 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 sweetheart rushed to the
shaft. But the story was soon told. ';All the
men in flats Nos. 2. 3 and 4 are dead. AS fast
as we get their bodies out and they are iden-
titled and fixed for burial we will send them
home" was what was told them. There
was no loud expression of emotion. A sob
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
systematic plan for the recovery of the bo-
dies agreed upon. The first party went
down the shaft TO fat No. 4. Three hundred
feet from the shaft they found a pile of
earth, coal, wagons and human bodies which
blocked further progress. This was tun-
neled through, and the party turned off 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, were overcome by the after damp and
had to be carried back to purer air The en-
trance to each room opening into three fats
was hastily closed with brattices to give
clearer sweep to the air that was being forced
into the mine. In the haulage roads of fat
No thirty-five bodies were found, and
fifteen were counted in ono heap in fat
No 2.
One man had both legs blown off. The
body of boy was found with a stick
driven through his arm. Time Boss VIM
Smith was torn almost to pieces TIE big
pumps. which lift tons of water at time
were broken and scattered as if they had