The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-07
Explosion Caught Miners in
a Death Trap.
BODIES BEING TAKEN OUT.
List Of Dead a Large One, and Is
Growing Rapidly.

Red Ash Mine at Fire Creek, w. Va,
SO Completely Blocked That the
Work of Rescue was sIow-sup-
posed to Have Been Caused by Fire
Damp - wives and Children in
Agony and Distress Gathered
About and Impeded the Work of
Rescue-The Disaster viii Be In
Vestigated.
Charleston, w. Va, March 6.-The great
est mining horror in the New river region
occurred at Red Ash about O'Clock this
morning, by an explosion in the drift mine
of the Red Ash Coal Company.
The mine was full of men, and the ex-
plosion occurred near the entrance, which
was closed by falling slate. "A relief crew
was quickly at work.
The working capacity of the mine is 175
men. and it was being worked to its full
capacity to fill rush orders. II is be-
neved over 100 men were at work.
Already fifty bodies have been taken
out and the work of rescue is still go
ing on.
state Mine Inspector Pinkney is on the
ground with a corps of experts lending
all assistance possible.
The explosion made but little noise, and
the accident was first discovered by a
laborer at the entrance.
The injured are being cared for as we'll
as possible under the circumstances, and
every nerve is being strained to rescue
those still in the mine
The scene of the accident is three miles
above Thurmond, on the Chesapeake and
Ohio road. y
The principal owner of the mine is ].
Fred Efinger of staunton, Va. The man
ager is Ferdinand Howell.
Four-ffths of Them Killed.
1t is believed that four-ffths of the men
in the mines were killed.
The mines are on the mountain side
above water, and the coal is similar to
that found in the Pocahontas district On
this account, it is said here that the ac-
cident cannot be caused by fire damp nor
by gas, as supposed. but from dust. as
was the case in one of the tragedies some
years ago in a Pocahontas mine
The district is a wild one on Rush run,
which is a south branch of New River,
having its. mouth at Thurmond. 1t is
about twenty-five miles from this city
The miners occupied the dwellings in the
vicinity of the mines.
The news Of the disaster swept through
the town like an electric shock, and with
i'm few minutes hundreds of men, women
and children, relatives of the unfortunate
miners, We're crowded upon the scene of
the disaster
Crowd Became Frantic.
As the conviction that the rescue of the
cutombed men alive was hopeless forced
itself On the grief-stricken crowds, they
became frantic in their endeavors to
reach their dead and dying in the wreck
cd shaft and the work of attempted res
cue was organized with extreme difficult
ty.
OF the first twelve men brought to the
surface five were dead or died within a
few minutes and several of the others
were horribly burned or bruised.
AS the work PROCEEDED and the dead
bodies were brought up one by one the
enes at the mouth of the shaft became
Distressing to the extreme. Shrieking,
frantic women and children impeded the
rcscuers and added to the horror of the
scene.
over Fifty Bodies Taken Out.
Fire Creek, w. Va. March 6.-The Red
mine explosion is the most disastrous ever
known in this district.
Although the most heroic work Of the
rscuing party has been going on inces-
sanity all day, it is impossible tonight to
estimate the full extent Of the loss of life
ana property More than fifty dead bodies
have already been taken out and the
number Of the dead may reach seventy
i've or more. 1t is thought tonight that
at least forty-fiye miners are yet en-
tombed in the wrecked mine
Every assistance possible was rendered
by the railway company and by the ad-
10 ming mining towns. Relief parties from
great distances arrived soon as possible.
state Mine Inspector Pinckney with a