The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-10
Mine EXPLOSION
At Pittsburg, Kansas, Kills
Five Men.
Shaft No. 5 of the Mount Car
mel Company.
WAS ANARROW ESCAPE
But Few Miners We're in the
Shaft at the Time.
Number of Employees is Usually
Two Hundred.

Pittsburg, Jan. 1O-An explosion of
dust in shaft No. of the Mount Car
mel Coal company's mines, one and a
half miles south of Chicopee. Saturday
evening, is believed to have resulted in
the death of at least five men. The
shaft.
Two men escaped. They, however
could give no account of their fellow
WOrkmen.
The dead are:
JIM SIMMERMAN,
JOHN BOSSING.
ANTON WEIMBERGER,
ANTON GERWITZ,
CASPER BARTOLIO.
These men were foreigners, some of
them Germans, and others Italians.
The rescuing party has after damp
to contend with, as well as great mass
eS of slate and other debris to remove
before progress can be made into the in
terror OF the mine. The loss to the com
pany in Wreckage and destruction to
the interior of the mine will be very
heavy.
No. is the largest shaft the
Mount Carmel Coal company is work
ing this winter, and on the day shift
employ nearly 200 miners. No accu-
rate explanation of the affair can yet
be obtained, but old miners believe it
was caused by an Inexperienced shot
hrer, and that the dust in the mine fg-
nited and caused the explosion.
The explosion was heard distinctly
light was seen for a few minutes in the
direction of Chicopee, five miles south
OF P1ttsburg. At o'clock the first
car from ChicOpee on the suburban
electric car line arrived and spread the
news tnat a mine explosion had oc-
CURED in Chicopee and forty miners
were killed.
Great excitement at once ensued and
a repetition of the terrible Frontenac
disaster which occurred six years ago,
was apprehended.
Physicians and surgeons, sent by the
Mount Carmel Coal company, left on
the first car for Chicopee At 1920
o'clock the car arrived at Chicopee
where the greatest confusion prevailed
IN the streets there were groups of
women and children crying. for the re-
port that the entire force of men on
the night shift were in the ruins and
were lost, had spread through the town
false.
Arrived at the shaft a scene of wild
disorder greeted the eye. Pieces of
roofing and broken timbers were
strewn for several yards about the
shaft, yet the greater part of the shaft
was still standing.
After the explosion men were on hand
at once to set the fans at work and to
extingUish the fire that started in the
superstructure of the shaft The black
smith shop just south of the shaft was
completely wrecked. The explosion oc-
CURED at what is known as ShOt-firing
time, and as far as can be learned but
seven or eight men were in the shaft.
Five of these were shot-drers and the
others were drivers.
Had the explosion occurred 80 min
utes later, the entire night shift of 80
or 40 men would have been caught.
About 20 minutes after the explosion
two men escaped from the shaft by
climbing up the bUntins of the shaft
They Immediately left the scene of the
wreckage for their homes and could
give no account of the accident, ex-
cept that they were in the mule stables
when the explosion occurred. and as
soon as they could, made for the bot
tom of the shaft and climbed out.
These men were Robert Boyd of Pitts
burg and Joseph Sherard of Chico
pee.
At 1890 the rescuing party in search
of the miners came across the body of
Joe Setar in a room about 300 feet
away from the bottom of the shaft. His
face and arms were horribly burned,
and he was just barely alive, being ex-
hausted from attempts made to find
his way out
He reported that there were four men
vet in the mine.