The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-10-08

Explosion I'm Which sat Least Eight
Men LOsc Their Lives.


Men Lose Their Lives.
wILKESBARRE. Pa. oct 7.-Shortly
after 5 O'Clock this afternoon a terrific cx-
plosion OF gas occurred i'm the Dorrance
mine, operated by the Lehigh Valley Coal
Company. which is situated in the north
western part of the city. 1t is not vet
known how many men were in the mine.
The officials are very reticent, and il is
almost impossible to get any information
from the levels of the earth where the
rescuers are at work
AT midnight the rescuers had made very
little headway in their efforts to reach the
victims of the explosion. Fire damp made
its appearance shortly after o'clock. and it
was necessary to do considerable brattice
work, which proceeded very slowly There
is strong suspicion also that the ex-
ploson caused heavy fall in the old work
ings, and that this will further retard the
work of the rescuers. 1t is now admitted
of finding the engineer corps alive. They
all perished I'm the explosion, and If they
were not killed outright they were suffo-
Gated by the fire damp. The superinsendent
is of the opinion that they were killed by
force of the explosion, and that their bod
les probably burned to crisp. All but
eight miners and laborsrs have now been
accounted for. Whether these eight per-
ished with the engineers will not be known
until tomorrow. Superintendent Chase
thinks, however, that the list of dead will
not number more than seven or eight
These may be put down as follows:
MICHAEL MOSS, died in the hospital to-
WILLIAM L. JONES. mining engineer,
aged twenty-one, of Wilkesbarre.
WILLIAM CAHILL. mining engineer,
aged twenty, Wilkesbarre.
LLEWELLYN OWENS mining engineer.
aged twenty-four, Pittston.
DANIEL DAVIS, fire boss, aged thirty
THREE UNKNOWN MEN. probably
brought to the surface with Michael Moss.
who died tonight:
ROBERT BLANCHARD, aged nineteen,
will die.
WILLIAM MILLER, aged twenty -one,
MICHAEL MOSS.
GEORGE LAFLY.
JOSEPH MURPHY.
The first two are members of the engi-
neer corps; Moss and I.afly are laborers
and Murphy is driver Miller and
Blanchard are so badly burned that they
cannot live. Blanchard gave his version
of the explosion to a reporter he lay
on cot in the hospital.
Shortly after O'Clock the engineer corps
decided to make survey of the old aban-
doned workings known as the Baltimore
section. which underlie the grounds of the
tant from the main opening of of the ss mine. e
The party, which was in charge of fire
boss Daniel Reese, who is an expert on
William Cahill and Llewellyn Holmes.
Blanchard and Miller were left behind to
finish some work that had been started in
the morning. About twelve minutes after
the party had left Miller and Blanchard
the explosion occurred. Both Miller and
Blanchard were knocked down by its force.
Flying timbers also struck Miller, break
After being knocked down Miller and
Blanchard remembered nothing until they
were revived at the hospital. Blanchard
thinks some of the engineers or probably
the fire boss set fire to body of gas I'm
the old workings. and that all Of the party
must have been instantly killed. When
Blanchard was found he was being slowly
roasted to death The gas had set fire to
his clothes, and they had been almost
burned of his body when the rescuers
came to him. Miller, with his broken arms,
could render him assistance. and
Blanchard was so pinned down by debris
that he could not make use of his hands.
At O'Clock Moss, Laf1y and Murphy
were brought to the surface. They. too,
were badly burned and were taken to the
ifal