The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-19

cave-in, and the tunnel and air courses
were filled with the fallen earth and tim
bers. Both fan houses were wrecked, and
the slope and vicinity were so full of debris
and the gas was so bad that il was hard
and dangerous work to begin the rescue
Nevertheless, willing hands were soon al
work, and five men went down as far as
possible to ascertain the condition of the
slope, and found 1t such that il will require
much work to reach the laborers The
gas was so bad that after the men had
gotten two hundred feet they were COM
PEELED to recede. The party consisted of
Superintendent Herrick of the Vulcan, and
John Evans, William Reese, Samuel Hills
and Robert Templeman, from the Consoli-
dated mine. The last-named mine shut
down Immediately on hearing of the dis
aster and sent its entire force of 80 men
to help the unfortunate ones. The con-
struction of temporary fan house was
commenced at once, and the work OF
pumping fresh air into the mine will soon
begin. 1t is hardly possible that any of
the miners are still alive, but the starting
of the fans will be made as soon as pos
sible in the hope that if any have survived
they may be kept alive till help reaches
them.
The only man who got out Of the mine
at the time of the explosion was Edward
Welch, who was near the mouth of the tun-
mel and blown out. his skull fractured, arm
broken, face badly cut and burned and all
the hair burned from his head. He was
breathing when found but expired shortly
after without showing consciousness. Two
young miners. Tom Connolly and James
Petrie, met with narrow escapes. Their
eyes becoming sore they quit work in the
mines and had just emerged from the tun-
rel when the explosion occurred.
As soon as the news of the explosion
reached New Castle Superintendent Blount
closed the mines OF the Colorado Fuel and
Iron Company and, taking all his miners.
left for the Vulcan mine. where all are
actively work aiding in the attempts
at rescue. There are two shafts i'm addition
to the one in which the explosion took
place. In the upper OF these two the res
cuers are in about three hundred feet and il
is through this that air be forced into
some Of the rooms, but none of those in
the mine have come out and it is feared
that this is conclusive evidence that all
are dead. In the main tunnel are men at
work building a division with boards and
canvas through which air can be forced in
on the one side and the foul gas driven out
from the other But this is slow work and
there is no possibility OF getting far enough
in the mine 10 recover any or the bodies
before tomorrow morning.
The cause of the explosion is not yet
known. The ccal fields in which the Vulcan
mine Is located have been troubled with
subterranean gas for many years. In many
places over a distance OF eighty to one
hundred miles smoke his issued from
crevices i'm the rocks since the country was
first known 10 white men and in later years
more than one valuable coal mine has been
destroyed by fire breaking into the work
ings. A little over year ago the mines
OF the Vulcan Company had to be flooded;
on this account and the old workings have
never been reopened The drift where to-
days accident occurred was . new one. II