St. Paul daily globe., 1893-01-25
Horrible Results Of a Fire
Damp Explosion in a Bo-
hemian Mine.
Fhe Death Roll Reaches Eighty
and Scores Are In
jured.
they Are Suffoeated by Foul
Air or Crushed by Heavy
Timbers.
Women Of the Victims Fami-
lies Attempt to Mob the
Mine Officials.

VIENNA, Jan. 24.-An explosion of
fire damp occurred today in the Fort
schritt mine at DuX, in Bohemia. 1t is
known that eighty miners were killed
and scores injured. The explosion oc-
Cured this morning when the shifts
were changing. a cage full of miners
had been lowered halfway down the
shaft when the ground trembled, loud
report was heard and the cable attached
to the cage gave such a lurch that the
lowering machinery broke. A rush of
air and dust from the pits mouth.
the sound of crashing timbers and the
cries of the men in the cage gave warn
ing to the men above of the extent of
the disaster. Help was summoned, the
machinery was repaired after delay
of half an hour and the cage was raised.
Ten of the occupants had been killed
instantly by the shock. ten had suffered
fractures from which they cannot re-
cover and 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.
None Left Alive.
An hour later the superintendent of
the mine and five miners from the night
shift went down in the cage. They
were unable to 90 more than hundred
yards from the shaft into the gallery,
but they found fourteen dead bodies.
OF the fifty men 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
superintendent found four bodies which
had been crushed beyond recognition
by a falling beam. The bodies
and the injured 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 MN
utes after the explosions they had heard
cries and groans from the mouth of the
gallery about 800 yards from the shaft
There was heavy timber work at this
in this gallery had beed imprisoned by
the falling beams. They believed 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 the shaft unconscious,
penetrated to the entrance of the gal
lery. 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 re-
turned to the top empty-handed. 1t is
believed that all the men in the gallery
were sutfocated 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
started for the shaft as soon as their
companions, are also believed to be
dead.
Despite the apparent hOpelessnesS of
the situation, reScuing party is still in
the mine, and thousands have gathered
at the pits mouth. When the extent of
the disaster began TO become evident
the women Of the dead mems families
attempted to mob the mine officials, ac-
cusing them OF careleSsness in the man
agement OF the mine and of Indifference
as to the fate of their husbands and
brothers below. The mine officials sent
to DuX for police, and three companies
of soldiers are camped in the fields
around the PITS mouth tonight. The
miners families are still at watches,
and probably will remain in the fields
all night, despite the iuclemency OF the
weather.