The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-02
MOST AWFUL DISASTER
IN HISTORY OF UTAH
Winter Quarters Mine No. 4 Visited BY a Terrible
Explosion.
Not Miner Has Come Out Aive-Dead Estimated at
$50 to 200

7 roof and sides Of the tunnel and were
/ piled in a mass. No men escaped alive
( from the mouth of No. 4; two were
I brought out but they would have died
I if they had been left to their own eff
+ forts in the dark hole filled with after
damp.
/ At No. 1 there was not the same
/ destruction. The men heard nc noise;
those who escaped did not know that
an explosion had occurred; there was
no Juror of flying timbens and debris
/ TO indicate anything of that kind; they
were far removed from the scene Of
! death and carnage.
Felt the Terrible After Damp.
In No. 4. some of them, at least those
who escaped, were more than a mile
/ away, but working in their many
/ rooms" and in the cross entries, they
felt the terrible afterdamp coming and
the sickness which it brings. Probably
many Of them did not know what it
was but there were other miners older
+ and more experienced who knew the
! trouble.
I There was a wild. fierce rush from
/ cross entries and rooms" for the tun-
mel which leads out into the open air
I How many fell by the wayside and
+ how many were caught and sufocated
F in their rooms viii not be known I'M
( til the awful damp has been blown out
and aScapec
/ Men who managed to come out, and
: there may be loo, tell a story of fear
and anguish in the black hole Of the
mountain. Some of them were helped;
+ nearly all were affected more or less.
some who could not stand the fumes.
! were overcome and fell while their
/ comrades rushed on TO life bevond.
As men fell others fell over them.
Some We're unable to get UP and they
+ lay down and the after damp Crept
upon them and poisoned them. Those
/ far back could not come out, for the
/ damp travels fast and it came uDon
/ them 50 that they were weakened.
I They could not keep up the pace
+ against the march Of the gas, and
/ they have been found in all shapes
/ ana forms. crowded together ana
piled on top Of each other. some
turned face down to the ground to
/ catch a breath Of air.
They Died Together.
a father and son were locked in each
others arms. They had died together
as they fell, sunocation coming upon
I them.
The only explanations of the acci-
/ dent are at best but the
cries Nearly everyone seems to
+ agree that the ignition Of coal dust
was the cause. but w. G. Sharp the
/ superintendent, who was early on me
( ground, and who, after breathing the
/ coal damp in efforts to rescue the dead
+ and dying, maintains that there never
I was any dangerous gas in this mine
/ Many of the men who were seen last
night say. too. that they never encoun-
tered any dangerous gases. He said
I that there must have been a large body
/ Of flame caused by a blown out blast
or by the explosion Of giant powder
which the miners use This fame
would cause the coal dust to ignite and
/ then resulted a terrible explosion.
All the Miners Killed.
All the miners in the neighbv ID
Of this explosion were, of course. k ed
/ instantly. and the tunnel and timbers
fearfully torn up This point has not
been reached, so that the damage done
I there cannot be learned.
/ But it was the after damp which
I killed most of them. of the eighty-four
men who We're brought out from No. 1.
and who are in Edwards boarding
house. every one was killed by the
damp; there is not one who was burned
or Scared in any way. They are not
marked. but lay on the floor dead. with
the appearance of any corpse.
( OF the tbirty-three who came from
I tunnel No I, nearly al are burned and
SCARED and wounded. some bevond
/ recognition. They were caught where
! the flames ragged fercest and were
roasted to death. Many of them have
their hands and feet burned away. one
mans head is blown half of and a lit
tie boys head was carried away. The
body lies among the others at the barn
I On the hill
Work Of Rescue.