Evening star., 1909-06-23
FIRE DAMP EXPLOSION
FOLLOWED BY FLAMES
Over Thirty Injured and Three
Bodies Taken From Shaft.
P1T1ABLE SCENES AT PIT MOUTH
Oxygen Tanks and Rescue Appara-
tus Being Rushed to the Scene
From Pittsburg.

WEHRUM, Pa, June 23.-As a result
of an explosion in mine No. of the
Lackawanna Coal and Coke Company
here today three miners are known to be
dead. six fatally injured. twenty-five Sc
riously hurt. while 1t is feared that sixty
five other men, believed to be still in the
mine. may be burned to death
The mine is burning fiercely at several
places and deadly black damp is pouring
from the mouth effectually preventing
systematic rescue work. Large quanti-
ties of oxygen and many oxygen tanks
have been requested from the Cambria
Steel Company of Johnstown. Pa. and
the United States government mining and
testing station, Pittsburg
Just what caused the explosion has not
from an accumulation of gas.
The scenes about the mine this after
room are extremely pathetic. Relatives
and friends of the victims are hysteri-
cally weeping and greatly retarding
the work of rescue
The explosion occurred at o'clock
this morning in the mine of the Lacka-
| wanna Coal and Coke Company.
At 10 o'clock-two hours after the
accident-it is believed that a large
number of men were .killed and many
injured.
Over 100 men are known to have en-
tered the mine shortly before the ca
tastrophe happened. and at 10 o'clock.
when only few of them had reached
the surface. the greatest fears were
expressed that the accident was q seri !.
Gus one.
The few men who escaped from the
| mine were burned and blackened, indi-
eating that the force of the explosion
| was heavy. None of them was in con-
dition to give details but from one 1t
was learned that the explosion seemed
| TO strike every portion of the mine stimuli
taneouSly.
Rescuing parties are making little
headway, owing TO the great confusion
at the mine. Work is also seriously re-
tarded by smoke from the pit mouth and
| traces of the deadly afterdamp.
Shortly after 10 O'Clock the body Of one
man, foreigner, was recovered. 1t was
found at the entrance of the mine and
was badly mutilated.
Three men. seriously burned, who sue
ceeded in reaching the surface are A. L.
johnson, son of Supt Johnson of mine:
Patrick Burns and William Burns.
Whole Mine Affected.
The first report that came to the
| anxious watchers at the mouth of the
| mine was that two or three men had
been injured and that the accident might
aot turn out seriously as such acci-
dents generally do. This buoyed up the
relatives and friends of the miners for a
short time, but as the minutes sped by
| and only few of the men reported on
the surface. burned and seriously in
jured. despair began to settle on the
watchers.
When Johnson and the Burns brothers
succeeded in escaping from the pit they
stated brokenly. while suffering the
greatest agony from burns. that the ex-
plosion was a bad one
1t appeared to them that the explosion
had taken place throughout the entire
mine and that every one at work in the
mine for a moment or two seemed to be
paralyzed.
Following the explosion there seemed to
| be a flash and then all was darkness.
| Pitiful calls for help and groans were
heard by the three men as they made
their way to the entrance, staggering and
falling over the bodies of comrades who
had succumbed with the first shock.