The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1906-03-16
AWFUL DISASTER
/. IN FRENCH MINE
Eleven Hundred Men Meet
Death as Result of an
Explosion.
Most Appalling Mining Catastrophe In
the History of the World, Bringing
Sorrow to Six Thousand Fathers,
Mothers, Wives and Children.

Paris.-A mine catastrophe of meal
culable horror and magnitude has
stricken the great coal center OF
! northern France An explosion of fire
damp at o'clock Saturday morning
carried death and destruction through.
out the network of coal mines cen.
tered at Courrieres, and fire following
/! the explosion made rescue difficult,
and almost impossible.
The death list number 100, and
the whole of the region stands ap-
palled at the terrible tragedy, which
has brought sorrow to six thousand
fathers, mothers, wives and children.
About 1000 miners work the group
of mines, and, with their families,
make population of from 5000 to
5000 souls
The explosion took place shortly
after 1,795 men had descended into
the mine. There was a deafening ex-
plosion, which was followed by the
cages and mining apparatus being
hurled from the mouth of the Cour-
riers mine. Men and horses nearby
outside the mine were either stunned
or killed. The roof of the mine Of
fic was torn off.
Immediately following the explo-
sion flames burst from the mouth of
the pit, driving back those without
who sought to enter and booming
those within.
The work of attempting to rescue
the imprisoned miners was hastily be-
gun by officials, engineers and miners
from the surrounding mines, who
formed parties and made heroic eff
forts to penetrate the smoke and foul
gases and bring out the imprisoned
men,
The families of the entombed min
ers crowded about the shaft seeking
fathers or husbands, and threatening
in their efforts to obtain details to
force back the gendarmes who kept
them from the mouth of the pit.
The populace of the district is ap-
palled by the disaster, which affects
every household
Those persons who were rescued
were terribly burned. The latest es.
Inmates place those taken out at SOL.
For the time being the mine build,
ing has been transferred into NOR
tuary chamber, and all about in it lie
the carboniZed and almost unrecog-
nizable bodies of miners which were
taken there as they were brought up
from the mine. Stricken relatives ar
rive at the mine building from time
to time, searching for missing men,
bers Of their families, and indescriba-
BILE scenes of grief occur as women
recognize loved ones!
Heartrending scenes, too, are wit
messed about the mouth of pit No. A,
where, in the presence of Ministers
Dubief and Gauthier, the bands of res
cuers are continually descending and
returning with bodies.
The women with children in their
arms attempt to break through the
Gordon of troops which forms lane
through which the body bearers pro-
coed to the mortuary chamber. Some
times the burden consists of mere
heap of burned flesh, and in nearly
every case the body is terribly lac
Grated. Only one-half of the bodies
recovered have been identified.
The last great mine disaster in
France occurred in 1885, when 293
persons were killed and 80 injured,
but that and all others sink into insig-
nificance before Courrieres.