The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-01-25
AWFUL CATASTROPHE.
Eighty Miners Killed and Scores In
jured at Dux, Bohemia.
AN EXPLOSION OF FIRE DAMP.
Mine Officials Mobbed by the Dead Mems
Families Terrible Story of Disaster in
a Mine Gage" In Bohemia-A Dust
Explosion.

VIENNA, Jan. 25.-An explosion OF fire
damp occurred yesterday in the Forts
chritt mine at Dux, in Bohemia.
Dispatches from Dux say that eight
miners were killed and scores were in
jured.
The explosion occurred in the morning
when the shifts were changing. A cage
full of miners had been lowered half way
down the shaft he ground trembled,
a loud rumbling report was heard and the
cable attached 10 the cage gave such a
lurch thai the lowering machinery broke.
A rush of air and dust from the pits
mouth, the sounds OF crashing timbers
and the cries OF the men in the cage. gave
warning to the men above OF the extent
OF the disaster.
Help was summoned, the machinery
was repaired after a delay Of half an hour
ana the cage was raised. Ten OF the oc-
cupants had been killed instantly by the
shock; ten had suffered fractures from
which they cannot recover; five, who had
broken limbs and internal injuries, will
live. They had been half suffocated by
the gas rising in the shaft and said that
No Man Could Live Below.
An hour later the superintendent OF the
mn NV hNc UllutTe lTOm the night
shift went down in the cage. They were
unable to go more than a hundred yards
from the shaft into the gallery, but they
found II dead bodies.
or the fifty who were waiting for the
cage, ten had been killed and forty had
been partially crushed by falling timbers
or half suffocated by the foul air.
a short distance from the shaft the SUI
p~erintendent found four bodies which
had been crushed beyond recognition by
a falling beam. The bodies and the in
Jured were taken TO the top where the
whole mining settlement had gathered to
watch the work of rescue.
The men who had been brought up
from the bottom said that a few minute.
after the explosion they he'd heard cries
and groans from the mouth OF the gallery
about three hundred yards from the
shaft. There was heavy timber work al
this place, and they believed that the men
In this gallery had been imprisoned by
the falling beams. They thought that
some forty men had been at work there.
Shortly before the cage came down, they
said, the cries ceased.
Another rescue party went down at
once, and, after three Of them had been
carried
Back to tho Shaft Unconscious.
penetrated to the entrance OF the gallery.
The entrance was completely blocked by
the wrecked woodwork. The rescue party
could see several dead bodies on the other
side of the timbers, but were unable to
get at them, and returned to the top
empty handed.
1t is believed that all the men in the
gallery were suffocated or killed by the
shock OF the explosion. Twelve miners
who worked in the extreme interior OF
the mine on the night shift, and had not
for the shaft as soon as their COM
panlons, are also believed to be dead.
.Despit, the apparent hopelessness OF the
situation, a rescue party is still in the
mine and thousands have gathered ut the
pits mouth. When the extent OF the
began to become evident, the
women OF the lead mems families at
tempted TO mob the mine officials, accus-
ing then OF carelessness i'm the manage
ment OF he mine and OF Indifference to
he fate OF their husbands and brothers
below.
The min officials sent TO Dux for police
ana three companies OF soldiers are
in the field around the pits
The miners families remained in
he fields near the pit all night, despite
the inclemency of the weather.