The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1908-04-03
WYOMING MINE HORROR.
Great Loss Of Life in Coal Mine Explo.
sion at Hanna.

Great Loss Of Life in Coal Mine Explo.
sion at Hanna.
Hanna, Wyo.-An explosion of gas
and dust in mine No. l OF the Union
Pacific Coal Company at o'clock Sat
urday afternoon completely wrecked
the workings and entombed twenty
men who If not killed by the awful ex
plosion were incinerated by the con-
f1agration that is raging far below the
mouth Of the shaft.
A second explosion occurred at 1890
Saturday in the east shaft, where a
gang of fifty relief workers. headed by
State Mine Inspector David Elias, were
about to remove four of the victims OF
the first explosion. The shaft was filled
with debris and all air currents cut of.
The second explosion was even more
severe than the first. being felt in all
parts Of town and 1t is feared thaat
fifty to sixty names have been added
to the death list.
When the first explosion occurred ev.
cry building in town WAS rocked as
though by a terrible earthquake: :
women and children. idle miners. bust.
ness men and others rushed into the
streets with blanched faces, for only
too we'll did they know what that awful
roar and the shaking earth meant.
She's off again." was the low cry
here and there, and then followed a
rush to the outer workings, power
house and tipples Of the mine.
q
quiries as to who were in the Inflated
mine brought forth the information
that twenty men were below.
The explosion was the result Of fire
that broke out in the tenth level last
Sunday and was promptly walled OFF.
The 200 miners worked Monday. We'd
nesday and Friday, and Tuesday,
Thursday and Saturday the force of
seventeen men, comprising the pick of
the three mines, all experienced men,
miners and fire fighters, worked dill.
gently to extinguish the underground
confagration, but without avail.
Luckily for the 200 miners the flames
did not reach the gas areas on the days
they were at work, for in this event
the disaster would have been even
more appalling than the one of five
years ago.
Immediately after the first explosion
force was organized and the work of
rescue commenced. The air fan and
shaft we're repaired Immediately, and
soon a current of air was forced
through the workings.
Everyone took hope when it was an
nounced that the air was working but
this hope was shOrt-lived, for the eX
perienced men on the outside, many Of
whom passed through the holocaust of
five years ago, assured the gathered
crowds if the entombed miners were
not killed outright, they were undoubt-
edly incinerated by the flames raging
below the tenth level.
Life could not possibly survive that
furnace one and one-half miles down
In the bowels of the earth and after
the first shrek of grief the women and
children We're taken to their homes by
tender hands and there they calmly
waited for the rescue parties to bring
the bodies of their loved ones from the
Inflated mine. They are simply be.
numbed with grief, dazed and unable
to realize what has happened.
Late at night the bodies of Joseph
Burton, Peter Munson, Robert War
burton and James Know were found
near the east shaft. They were charred
and disfgured and were probably kill
ed instantly.
When the second explosion occurred.
miners and citizens rushed to the east
shaft, where they were joined by the
relief workers who were driven from
the west shaft, which was also caved
in by the explosion, and all set to work
with will to dig out the fifty Ell
tombed men.
Additional men have been summon
ed from the neighboring coal camp
and all available laborers in Credon
and grading gangs along the railroad
are hurrying to Hanna in special
trains.
The scenes in town and about the
mine beggar description.
The women and children are now
panic-stricken and are rushing madly
through the streets and up to the
mines, calling piteously for their loved
ones
1t was In this same mine that 1G9
men lost their lives on June 30, 1903,
by similar explosion. The colliery
was filled with debris at that time and,
although large gangs worked constant
ly day and night the last Of the bodies
were not reached until six months af-
terward and the remains of Fire Boss
Cox were never recovered.