The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-04-19
Y DEAD.
Frightful Results of the Mine Explosion
Near Whatcom, Wash.

Near "HaCcOm, WASH.
Seattle, Wash. April 10.-Special dis
patches to the Post-In1elligencer have
been received here from Whatcom.
Wash, giving full particulars of the
disaster at Blue Canyon mine in which
twenty-three miners lost their lives.
The corpses were all recovered and are
lying in a blacksmith shop near the
tunnel of the mine. Only two men
who were in the mine when the explo-
sion occurred escaped DEATH.
The killed:
MINE SUPT. DAVID Y. JONES.
KIRK CL1NSKE.
SAMUEL OLSEN.
JAMES M'NUTTY.
j. A. MORGAN.
CHARLES CARLSON.
II. RAVETT.
PHILLIP BINKLE.
ALEXANDER HENDER[CKSON.
LUCAS LOTAKA.
ANDERSON, ANDREW, married.
ANDERSON, ALEXANDER.
BLUM, MARTIN.
CONLIN, THOMAS.
CHASE, E. P.
EVANS, WILLIAM.
JOHNSON, ISAAC.
KIRBY, JAMES, married.. t-
LYSTER, WILLIAM.
LATKA, LON.
MORGAN, BEN.
M'ANDREW, JAMES, married.
ROBERTS, GEORGE.
RAMBERG, CHARLES.
SILVERMAN, CHARLES, married.
WILLIAMS, JOHN.
ZELISKA, MIKE, married.
The explosion occurred shortly be-
fore 3 o'clock, when the shift would
have been changed and the miners were
already climbing the steep hill to take
the places of the men killed. This dis
aster was undoubtedly caused by an
accumulation of fire damp, which was
exploded. by a blast in the breast of the
gangWay. The faces of the men who
were working in the. breast are badly
burned, but a majority of those who
We're working inthe rooms off the gang
way were only Slightly disfigured by
the fire and many not at all. Physicians
and miners Say that the men working
lin. the breast must have been killed by
the shock Of the explosion, while the
others succumbed to the fire damp as
they Slid down from the rooms to the
gangway, then filled with deadly gas.
Kerns, the only miner who escaped
from any of the rooms, says hat he
was not stunned or even thrown down
by the shock, though Morgan, who was
working with him, was killed.
Kerns' light was not eXtinguished and
he saw no fire. He slid down the chute
to the gangWay, losing his light, and
managed to make his way along the
passage over dead bodies n piles Of
coal to the open air, but before he
reached the entrance the work of res
cue had commenced. Out in the tunnel
he met a party of brave miners cropping
their way inward as fast as the escape
of the poisonous gas permitted.
This party and others following
pushed into the min Inc carried out
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
mine entrance. From there to the fall
of the gangWay, a distance of about 900
feet, bodies were scattered along as
they fell from the chutes leading to the
rooms. Most of he bodies showed lit
tie evidence of a struggle and in most
instances death. apparently came
quickly.
McAndreWs' body was found buried
undo a slide of coal and McNulty was
upon his hands and knees about twenty
yards from where he had been working
and his handkerchief was tied over his
nose n mouth. Al that is now pos
sible is being done to alleviate the dis
tress Of the families of the deceased.
The president of the company, M. E.
Downs, nov in New York, has been
notified by wire. Collins have beer or
dered and after the inquest the bodies
will be taken to Whatcom.