The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-10
.WHATCOM'S DEATH LIST,
There Were Twenty-Three Men
Killed at Blue Canyon
Mine Explosion.
The Bodies Have Been Recovered
and Show Little of the Shock
Encountered.

SEATTLE, WASH, April ga Whatcom
special says: The Post-Intelligencer cor
respondent returned at A. N. from the
scene of the terrible disaster at Blue Can
yon mine, fifteen miles from this city on
Lake Whatcom, and is in possession Of all
the particulars now obtainable.
The two men who escaped are Edward
Gellon of Fairhaven,. who was working
at the outer switch in the mine, in COM
pany with George Roberts and James
Kerns. The latter was working with Ben
Morgan in room 10, off the gangway, the
outermost of all the works in which work
was going on.
The explosion occurred shortly before 8
o'clock, when the shift would have been
changed, and the miners were already
climbing the steep hill from the bunk
house TO take the places of the men who
were killed.
The disaster was undoubtedly caused by
an accumulation of firedamp which was
exploded by a blast in the breast of the
gangwsy. The faces of the men who were
working in the breast were badly burned.
but a majority of those who were working
in the rooms off the gangway were only
slightly disfgured by the fire, and many of
them not at all.
Physicians and miners say that the men
working in the breast must have been
killed by the shock of the explosion, while
the others succumbed to the afterdamp, as
they slid down from the rooms to the
gangway, then filed with deadly gas.
This gangway is reached by a tunnel 80
feet long, and the distance from the inter
section of the gangway to the breast where
the explosion took place is about 1000 feet.
The main air shaft reached the gangway
about 100 feet from the tunnel; and air is
supplied by water-power, and which was
not affected by the explosion.
Kearns, the only miner who escaped
from any of the rooms, says that he was
not stunned or even thrown down by the
shock, though Morgan. who was working
with him, was killed. Kearns' light was
not extinguished, and he saw no fire. He
slid down the chute to the gangway, losing
his light in some way, and managed to
make his way in the darkness, in some
miraculous manner, along the poisonous
passage, over dead bodies ard piles of coal
loosened by the explosion, TO the open air,
but before he reached the entrance the
work of rescue had already commenced.
Out in the tunnel he met party of
brave miners cropping their way inward as
fast as the escape of the poisonous gases
permitted. This party and others follow
ing, pushed their way into the mine and
carried out one by one the bodies OF
the dead miners as they came upon them
scattered along the gangway. The first
body found was that of the mule-driver,
lying beside the dead animal $50 feet
from the main entrance. From there to
the fall OF the gangway, distance of
about 800 feet, bodies were scattered along
as they fell from the chutes leading to the
rooms.
Most of the bodies showed little evidence
OF the struggle, and in most instances
death apparently came quickly. Mean
drews' body was found buried under slide
of coal, and McNulty was upon his hands
and knees about twenty yards from where
he had been working, and had his nand-
kerchief tied over his nose and mouth.
When the correspondent left the mine,
shortly before midnight, the work of wash
ing the faces and hands of the dead men
had just commenced.
In the blacksmith-shop near the en-
trance to the main tunnel, lie the black
ened bodies of twenty-three dead miners,
while only two OF all who were in the mine
when the explosion occurred lived to tell
the story of the frightful catastrophe and
their own miraculous escape.
Following are the names of the killed:
Mine Superintendent David Y. Jones
leaves widow; Andrew Anderson, widow
and one child. James McAndrews leaves
widow. James Kirkley leaves a widow.
Kirk Clinske, widow and four children.
All the others were single men. Their
names are as follows:
Charles sIlverman, G. Ramsberg, Will
liam Lyster, Samuel Olsen, James Nc
Nulty, J. A. Morgan, Martin M. Blum, E.
I. Chase, Charles Carlson, III. Ravett,
whose home is in Fair Haven; Philip
Blnkle, William Evans, J. Williams, Alex
ander Hendrickson, Ben Morgan, George
Roberts, Thomas Conlin, Lucas Lotaka.
All that is now possible is being done to
alleviate the distress of the families of the
deceased.