The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-10
MANY LIVES CRUSHED OUT !
BY A BLACK DAMP EXPLOSION
Frghtfu Disaster in the Carbon Hill Mines at Carbonado
Washington The Cause of the Explosion Mys-
tery-Pitiful Scenes Among the Surviv-
ors = Many Acts Of Heroisn.
Dead Terribly Mangled.

levels near the water level Three more
have been rescued up through the in
clined tramway. All of them are badly
blackened and burned and they are
Immediately taken to the company's
hospital and are wrapped in cloths
soaked in linseed oil by Drs. F. J.
Stewart of Carbonate, Donovan Of
Fairfax, Charles Taylor of wilkeson
and Drs. Loughlen and Rumnnel of
Tacoma.
Pitiful Scenes.
The scenes at the hospital are pitiful
Men whose clothing fs almost burned
from their bodies are laid out as fast
as they arrive, their eyebrows and hair
singed and their faces black and blue.
Women and children surrodnd the
building weeping.
A crowd Of voiceless men stands in
front of the mouth Of the incline, wait
ing to see who Of their friends will next
be brought out alive. Occasionally a
shapeless body comes up on the car.
Rescue parties are working both in the
| incline and at the old timber chute on
| the hill.
Sadness fills the Meredith home. Mrs.
| Meredith with eyes flowing tears fears
| that not only has she lost her husband,
but her son, Daniel Meredith, who, al
|
appeared across his accustomed thresh-
old. A crowd of sympathizing women,
| neighbors, are grouped around her Of
f, fering their consolations At present
! it is stated confidently that large
| proportion of the unfortunate miners
| may be brought out alive. 1t was GUS
| tomary to work 115 men. divided into
| three shifts, but the first. the morning
| shift, was the largest.
Several years ago an explosion of
! fire damp occurred in this same mine
| and two men lost their lives. Nobody
| so far blames the company, as the ex
| plosion is regarded as an accident
common to coal mining. Timber gangs
are now at work replacing the deranged
| timbers and incidentally rescuing the
imprisoned miners or taking out an oc--
casional body. The fans are working
rapidly being sucked out of the mine.
They were@Ynot stopped at all by tire
explosion. s,.As .,4-., -..t y ..,,-a
ts8 Some Of the Dead.
1918 p. m.--Following is an addition
al list Of dead SO far recognized:
JOE THOMAS, q, single
EVAN LEWIS, single.
WATT JONES, 30, leaves a mother.
WILLIAM RICHARDS, 4S, family.
| - MULLEN, So leaves mother. ~
GUSTAV KNUTT and H. KNUTT.a
- JOHNSON, 40, leaves family.
BEN ZEDDLER and B. zEDDLER,
| father and son.
D. S. THOMAS, so, leaves family.
| WILLIAM M. DAVIS, S5, leaves FAM
| lily I'D
HOWELL MEREDITH, leaves fam
| lily. r,F
The first five bodies to be brought
up the long incline We're those of Watt
| Jones, Joe Thomas, Evan Lewis, Rich
| ard Dare and Daniel Davis. Watt Jones
| was the chief starter Daniel Davis
| was a son of the foreman of the shift
| None of the bodies were at first recog-
nizable because the faces of the dead
| men We're charred and blackened be-
yond identification. 1t was only after
| they We're conveyed to the morgue and
the corpses were washed that vt could
be told who they We're. ~,
| The work of rescuing the living was
completed at o'clock. BY that time
| the mine had been purified by the fans
| to such an extent as to permit free in
gress and egress. Down in the canyon
a mile from the town is the tunnel
| mouth leading to No Z. Nearly two
/ miles up the hillside is the shaft to
| the mine, and it was here that the
| work was pushed vigorously.
| Men went down in parties of two or
| more and searched for the living as
| fast as the deadly damp would allow
| progress. Those who We're brought to
! the surface were muffled in sacking to
] -
| be hoisted to the top of the incline and
| carried to the hospital There were not
| many of these, but the search was
continued until all hope of saving life
| was at an end.
| Gases of Heroism.
| Many cases of heroism on the part of
| the workers were brought to light. Men,
I would continue until overcome by the
| gases. They would be carried to the
Inrrr tn IN
| one case miner named Meredith es-
! capped to the pit mouth after the ex-
| plosion. He had been working with his
/ son and the boy did not come out with
| him. The father returned to look for
the boy and he is among the missing
| His son was rescued alive.
The first body to be brought to the
surface was that of Watt Jones, the
only support of widowed mother. The
| body was followed by four others, all
| unrecognizable in their coating of coal
dust and CRIME.
At the top of the incline was gathered
a crowd of men. women and children
having friends or relatives among the
missing. They watched the loaded cars
| with an air Stoical, and almost indif-
/ ferent, or asked those who accompan-
! led the bodies if news had yet been
heard of their loved ones.
In a rough building belonging to the
Miners association the blackened
| corpses were washed and identified
| Some We're burned and all were covered
| with a thick coating of coal or CRIME
| Acting upon the suggestion of the cor
| oner, the. shreds of clothing torn by the
force of the explosion and the personal
| effects Of each were placed in box
and labeled. The limited amount OF
| space in the building made 1t impossl-
| Bile. to admit friends and relatives who
| wished to ascertain their identity to
certainty. None of the bodies recovered
| last night were crushed. There are un-
| doubtedly number Ender the falls of
! rock and earth in different parts of the
mine, but they cannot be recovered for
! some time Timbering and excavating
are being carried on as rapidly as pos
| sible.
| All of the men killed, or nearly all,
| were smothered by the gases and damp,
although some may have died more
| easily from the shock of the concus-