Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-07-22
MANY BURIED ALIVE.
HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE IN A
PENNSYLVANIA MINE.
More than 125 Miners Thought to
Have Died Awful Deaths from Ex-
plosion of Fire DamD-The Survivors
Tell Tales of ErightfuI Conditions.

BY an exclusion ia the Rolling Mil
mine Of the Camilla Steel Company at
1920 o'clock Thursday afternoon an IN
ascertained number of miners have lost
their lives. 1t is estimated the list OF
dead win reach from 125 to 300.
1t was rninored at first that 500 had
persisted. but later reports show that 4OO
out OF the 600 endangered men are safe
This appalling disaster is only less
frightful than the awful calamity y May
81, 1889 The whole city of Johnstown
is in mourning. After damp prevented
rescue parties from making rapid head
way.
The mining officials of the Cambria
company say the explosion was caused
by fire damp.
An American miner who ESCAPED tells
of seeing a young Hungarian recently
hunting for fire damp with his lamp along
the cracks in the mine wall.
Statement by Mine President.
President Powell Stackhouse was seen
at the mouth of the mine and gave out
the following statement:
The disaster is an unusual one end
came on rs entirely Unexpectedly. The
mine had been inspected only three days
ago and was pronounced in satisfactory
condition. The cause is yet indefinite.
but believe it was caused by gas escap-
ing from the fifth heading, which was
closed and was not being worked because
it contained gas, into the sixth heading.
Disaster in the "Dlondike."
The catastrophe occurred in the section
of the mine known among the miners as
the 'Klondike." 1t is the sixth section
west of the south main heading and is a
mile and a half from the main entrance
of the mine
There are two openings to the mine
one the Westmont. near the stone bridge
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the other
at Mill creek, four miles away. All the
mines in the vicinity were closed as soon
as news of the disaster got out, and their
miners were at the scene of the explo-
sion ready to help in the rescue work.
The scenes at both openings of the mine
were narrowing and indescribable.
Two miners who came out of the mine
at the Mill creek opening estimate about
800 of the 600 men at work in the Cam
bria drift got out at that opening.
Survivors Report FrightfuI Conditions
The few survivors who have escaped
from the depths of the mine describe the
condition as frightful in their nature. Out
side of the 'Klondike" the mines are
safe and uninjured. Within the fatal
limits of the mine the havoc wrought by
the explosion is such as beggar deserip-
ton. Solid walls of masonry THEE feet
through were torn down as though bar
riers of paper The roofs of the mine
were demolished and not door remains
standing.
The men who escaped are familiar with
the mine. They have spent years work
ing in ii. Otherwise they could never
have reached the surface. Lights were
out and there was ne way for them to
find their way to the top had they not
known the mine perfectly.
John Hewlett at the time of the acct
dent was at second right, room sixteen,
two miles back in the mines. The ex-
plosion, he said, was at right six, about
400 yards from where he was working.
''There were six of us together, and as
soon as we heard the explosion we pulled
up stakes and got out as quick as possi-
BILE. Richard Bennett was one of the
men with me. After Bennett got out
he went back again. After the explosion
we could not see our hands before us
until we reached the main heading. 1t
appeared to be smoky, stinky substance,
whether gas or damp l could not tell. 1t
was terrible whatever it was"
Two young men who were at work in
the ''Klondike' when the explosion oc-
CURED, escaped by way of an old and un-
used air shaft. They were dizzy and
sick with the awful damp when they
were found, and after their recovery they
told a horrible story of how they had
crawled over the dead bodies of their
comrades. They could not say how many
are dead. but from their tale it is almost
certain that there are no living nlen in
the mine at the present time. Tom Fos-
ter mine boss, and Powell Griffith. a
fire boss, also escaped, and they tell the
same horrible tale of the catastrophe.