Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1909-02-01

IN to endearment in the term
water plug" when referring to
each other.
The fire which commenced in the
lower levels of the Consolidated Nir-
ginia mine about 1878. and which
was not extinguished until about
1890. was the subject of conversation
between many of the old timers who
were employed on the property.
The fire originated from some I'M
known source on the 400 foot level
in stop1, and extended down to the
1900. OF course everything was done
that could be done in an effort to
stop II, bur it was of no use, and the
only thing left to do was to place
was "a chance for the flames to spread
from that stope to some other part
of the mine. This was done success
fully and that fire burned there for
nearly evenly Yeas. Finally they
sent to Frisco and engaged the ser.
vices of a man ~ the name of Price,
who was u famous chemist in those
days. lie came and looked over the
situation and finally decided upon
his plan ol action. Securing a big
bunch of empty whisky barrels he
proceeded 10 fiji them with carbonic
acid gas. He then had holes drilled
through the pulkheads and attaching
pipes to the barrels he had tapped,
he turned the gas into the burning
stopc This gas coming into the
stope from all sides and in great
quantities eventually checked the
fire and after time put it out en-
tirely.
As soon as the fire was out they
tore away the bukheads and began
working in the stop1. They even
found new bodies of ore, and from
the new finds and the Old fills they
took ont something like s7,0o0,0ot
or $SOO0,00
All the time the fire was burning
work went on all around it. Some
times men would break through into
the stope but the opening would i'm
mcdiately be bulkheadcd up-in these
instances with stone or brick-and
the work would go right ahead. Once
in q while one of the bulkheads would
be blown out by the accumulation
OF gas in the burning territory.
The burned area was about l59
feet wide by 800 feet long and from
the 1900 TO the 1G00-foot levels.
The fire in the yellow Jacket. or
which started in the Yellow Jacket,
candle which had been left burn
ing in a drift on the S00-foot level.
The fire spread to the Crown Point
and kaintuck-all three properties
being connected underground-and
bounced for more than a year. At
tho time this occurred ex-senator j.
=. Jones was superintendent. The
rncr were coming out of the drift at
O'Clock in the morning. Along this
drift at intervals of several feet. two
nails were driven in the tmbers and
lighted candles were fastened be
tween the nails In the course of
time, after u number of candles had
melted, the timber beneath Were
the candle was fastened became COW
red with constantly accommodating
grease. and IT, is supposed that upon
coming out of the drift on that fate
ful night one of these candles was
overlooked and left burning. finally
dropping down upon the saturated
tmbers below.
The fire was not discovered until
another shift prepared to go down.
come hours later. Smoke at the 700
foot level was detected and an inves.
tigation showed that the timbers on
the SOO-foot level were blazing. No
hallway was made in fighting below,
and finally the mouths of all three
shafts were covered with sacks of
dirt and dropping hugh pipes through
the mass. every available pound of
steam which six enormous boilers
,Oud furnish for seven days was
pumped into those mines only to find
that 1t had not the slightest effect.
They fought that fire for more than
year and finally extinguished it by
simply flooding the workings with
millions. of gallons of water The
tire cost the lives of forty-four men,
90