The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-10-19
OCCURRED THIS MORNING AND CAUSED
MUCH EXCITEMENT HERE.
NINE MEN BURNED; THREE FATALLY
The Accident Was Caused by Shot which
Ignited the Gas.
All the Victims are Residents of This
Town, and Six of Them Have Been
Removed to the Miners Hos
pita1 at Fountain
Springs.

A frig htful explosion occurred at the
Knickerbocker colliery, Yatesville, at about
ten o'clock this morning by which nine men
were burned, three of them probably fatally
All the injured men are residents of this
town. Eight were miners and one starter.
The miners were Polish people
The names of the victims are
PETER BUBNEs, 30 years, single, burned
about face and hands. VIII recover.
ANTHONY SUBREss, 80 years, single,
burned about head and arms. Will recover.
MICHAEL CHICO, q years, wife and two
children; head, face, arms, hands and neck
fatally burned.
ANDREW BossAR, 30 years, wife and three
children. Face, arms and hands burned, but
not seriously.
CHARLES MAJAK, probably fatally burned.
Scalp torn off
GEORGE KARAL, fatally burned.
JOHN SoPITsKI, slightly burned.
FELIX MEcoLsKI, burned on head face
and arms.
ROBERT LORD, 2s years, starter, English
man.
| All the men were employed in the second
| lift of the East Buck Mountain vein and at
the time the explosion occurred were
scattered along a heading taking the usual
morning meal from their cans.
Anthony Bossar, who resides on East Lloyd
street, was the only victim of the Poles who
could speak intelhgibly on the explosion, yet
he could say nothing further than that the
fire suddenly came upon the men. He could
not account for the explosion, but supposed it
was caused by naked light. He said all the
miners carried a safety lamp but the starter
had none.
Superintendent Broughall and Inside Fore
man Brown were seen by reporter as they
emerged from the slope of the cclliery after
having made an examination of the place
where the explosion occurred. They stated
that the explosion occurred in breast No. 26,
which was worked by Bossar and Chico, and
that the gas was ignited by a shot that was
fred by these two men,
The explosion caused comparatively little
damage to the workings of the colliery and
the operations were not interfered with out
side Of the immediate vicinity of the place
where it occurred
All the victims were brought to town, some
in ambulances and others on electric cars.
Six of them were sent to the Miners hospital.
Majak was placed in a seat in the train and
appeared to be semi-conscious. His head
was in fearful state.
| Kajak was delirious while in the depot.
His scalp was so badly torn that the top of
his skull was entirely bare. 1t was with
difficulty that he could be held down upon a
stretcher. The other victims did not seem to
suffer as much, although pieces of flesh hung
in shreds from their arms.
The wife of John Sopitski, one of the vic
Tins, is lying at the point of death at her
home on East Lloyd street, having recently
been confined
Robert Lord, the starter, is an Englishman
and is being cared for at his home on North
Gilbert street. He is badly burned about the
head, hands and face, but his condition is not
considered dangerous
The explosion created intense excitement
and hundreds of people gathered about the
top of the slope when the victims were brought
out, but when it was learned that none were
killed and that the results were not as bad as
the people were led to suppose by the first
report the excitement subsidized and others
than friends Of the victims and employees of
the colliery sought their homes The explo-
sion is the worst accident that has occurred
at the Knickerbocker in several years