The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-16
BLOWN INTO
ETERNITY.
Terrible Explosion in Cape
Breton Coal Mine.
Forty Miners In the Pit at
the Time.
PROBABLY KILLED.
Twelve Lifeless Bodies Have
Been Recovered.
Catastrophe Was Caused by
Accumulated Gas.

Halifax, N. s, June ia special
dispatch from Glacebay, g. B., one mile
from the Caledonia mine, one of the
collieries of the Dominion Coal Co.
says an explosion accompanied by ter
rible loss of life occurred early today.
More than 40 men were in the pit
when the explosion occurred and it is
believed that nearly all of them per-
ished. Twelve Ifeless bodies have al
ready been recovered.
The explosion was caused by gas
which had accumulated in the Old
workings The night shift had just
come out of the mine, otherwise the
loss of life would have been even mora
appalling than it is.
Some of those in the mine escaped
through the top but how many is not
yet known. The officials at 10 a M
were unable to state how many were
in the pit but say theer may have been
fifty-fiVe.
AN AWFUL ROAR.
The explosions occurred in the west pit
at a depth of about three-quarters OF a
mile and were caused by gas Wnlch
had accumulated in the old workings
The full force Of men employed in the
mine at night is about $50, but the nlghC
shift had lust stopped work and all but
about sixty had left the mine. There
was scarcely an intermission between
the conclusions. The first was duiA
boom. Then there was a rum bling noise
like an earthquake, succeeded by q
deafenipg, prolonged and awful roar
which reveberated among the hllls Tor
miles, and the shock of which shattered
glass in every direction. IN the l1nuled-
late vicinity of the disaster. The mean
ing of the sound was we'll understood
throughout the district and an anxious
people f1Ocked to the mine entrance Be
fore they arrived suffocating volumes or
coal smoke began to pour out, showing
that fire had followed the explosion.
The officials of the mine were among
EySf TO hGa
the men showed that some three score
were missing, but a moment later a
number of the miners appeared, having
escaped by slope. There We're ABOUT
25 in the company who were able 10 re
port their presence to the anxious
friends at the shaft, but several others
who had managed to get out of the
slope had fallen, overcome by exhaus-
ton or the fumes which they had in
hailed When these had been reached
it was evident at least twenty men. and
possibly thirty, had been cut off by
the explosion and perished.
OF the incidents attending the eXplos-
ion, the survivors were for a long time
too confused to give an intelligent ac-
count. There was no apparent danger
at midnight nor up to O'Clock when
the underground manager Thomas
Johnson, now missing, last reported
Shortly after o'clock the watchman
smelled gas and burning wood and
Manager Thomas Brown was nouhed-
He opened the shaft just as the ex-
plosion occurred. The work of rescue
was promptly undertaken by AsSlStant
General Manager johnson and Daniel
Merlien, underground manager of the
Hub colliery, with large number OF
miners.
WORK OF RESCUE.
The party were confronted with many
difficulties. Men, women and children
hung about the opening of the slope.
weeping and distracted. Down below
a pitchy darkness prevailed, lighted by
occasional brilliant bursts of confagra-
ton raging throughout the pit. The
lamps of the rescuing party shed feeble
CLEANS as the volunteers gropeh
their way down into the mine, the rols-
onous gases almost choking them
After a brief time a body was brought
up, then another, and another, until 13
had come the surface. None or them
was mangled, but all were blackened-
The bodies were laid side by side in the
large room in the office building. Men
and women crowded into the place and
most pitifu1 scenes.
In the midst of the excitement at the
mouth of the shaft the form of Manager
Brown was brought to the surface. The
opening of a door in one of the pass
ages was followed by an explosion, and
Brown was knocked senseless by the
shock II spite of the efforts Of the
rescuing party, the proportions of the
fire in the pit soon forced them to give
all their attention to that. The work
had to be stopped at frequent intervals
owing to the danger from fire damp,
and with each retreat of the men the
fire Travelled with double fury. The
wreck of the mine seemed beyond
question, but later the atmosphere
cleared somewhat and the work offght-
ing the fire was effective.