Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-10-12
GREAT FIRE RAGING.
Luke Fielder Colliery, at Shamokin,
Pa, Ablaze as the Rusult of
Negligence.
ONE DEAD, FOUR ENTOMBED.
Fifty-tive Other Employees Have a
Thrilling Escape From an
Awful Death.

S%HAMoK1N, Pa, Oct. 10.-One work
man dead and four others enclosed in
the mine with all venue of escape cut
off, and the most disastrous mine fire
aver known in the Western anthracite
coal fields, now raging at the Luke
Fielder colliery, is the result, in brief,
of a carpenters negligence. Fifty-tive
other workmen who were employed in
the mine at the time Of the accident,
had thrilling escapes, as they were COM
PEELED to grope their way through
smoke and noXious gases in order to
reach the fresh air and safety. The
four men who are still missing have
been smothered before this, as all parts
Of the big mine are certainly filled with
Smoke and Deadly A%fterdamp.
The fire started in the airway of No.
1shaft and Irving Burlington, whom the
colliery people hold responsible for the
disaster, is dead. His body was not
burned, as death was due to suffocation.
George Brown, a miner, and his Polish
helper, Anthony Bobertick; Robert, a
driver boy from Luke Fielder, and all
other Polish laborer whose name is not
known by the mine officials, are ih the
mine and no hope is entertained of re.
covering them, The mine is now a
mass of flames and cannot be ap-
preached from any direction. It is
feared that the inside workings will
have to be flooded, which means many
months of idleness to the 900 employees.
Caused by Negligence.
Superintendent Morris Williams of
the Mineral Railway and Mining com
pany, informed an Associated Press
representative that while Irving Buff
tington, John Anderson, Jr., and others
were engaged in retimbering No. l
shaft, the former disobeyed orders by
lighting his naked lamp in the air
course for the purpose OF testing the
air. A spark set fire to the timber, that
was as dry as powder, and the current
carried the flames up and down the
saft like lightning. Burlington was
advised by his fellow workmen to make
good his escape, but he neglected the
warning and returned to the bottom of
the shaft i'll order to exchange his gum
boots for his shoes. This delay cost him
his life. Superintendent Williams,
Mine Inspector Brennan, Inside Fore
man Heller and Arthur Kennedy and
all of the underbosses at the Fielder and
Cameron mines
Formed Three Relief Parties
and entered the mine to rescue the so
imprisoned workmen by way Of the
coal run workings through No. 3 air.
way. The latter opening proved a god
send to the men, as it is to this channel
that most Of them owe their escape.
The smoke spread through the inside
workings with great rapidity and
alarmed the men and boys doing night
duty in the mine. While the impris.
oned men were rushing through the in
side workings in search of all airshaft
for an outlet, hundreds of their friends
gathered about the mouth of the shaft
and as the farmhouse was destroyed by
the flames, the cries and means of the
mothers, wives sisters, and children OF
the imprisoned employees sent chills
through the hearts Of many hardy
miners, who were waiting for an oppor-
tunity to assist their doomed comrades.
This mine connects with the Hickory
Swamp colliery of the Union Coal
company, and it if it has to be drowned
out, it will compel both mines to shut
down for year or more.