The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-04-08
FIFTY MEN
ENT0MBED
Buried in Burning Mine Near
Scranton
RESCUE FORCE AT WORK
Fire Cuts Off Their Escape to Safety
Volunteer Firemen Work
Hard to Free the
Men.
RESCUE FORCE AT WORK

Scranton, Pa, April s.-Caught with
out moments warning 80 men and
boys are believed to have persisted yes
terday in a mine fire in the Pancoast
collery at Throop, three miles from this
city. Some estimates place the num-
Der at 90. Three bodies have been
recovered. These were found short
distance beyond where the flames broke
out few minutes before 10 o'clock
yesterday
Three men protected by helmets and
oxygen tanks pushed past the point
where the flames were first discovered
at o'clock yesterday Afternoon and stun
bled over the bodies of two men and
boy, who had evidently fallen while
cropping their way to safety. TO those
familiar with the conditions in the
colliery, the finding of these bodies in
Dictated that there was practically no
hope for the other imprisoned miners
A great majority of the missing
men and boys are foreigners but Fore
man Walter Knight and Fire Boss AL
fred Dave, two Americans, are thought
to have persisted
The fire started in an engine house
at the opening Of stope leading from
the diamond vein, 750 feet from the
surface There were 400 men in the
mine when the fire started, about 80
of them in the workings at work in a
blind tunnel at the end of the stope
Escape was completely blocked by
fire, smoke and the generated gases,
possibly before the men and boys real
lied their danger
The other men. scattered in different
workings. got out by exits.
James Yickers, a FIRE boss, who WAS
near the engine house when the fire
broke out, gave the alarm and tried to
get to the tunnel where he knew Il
large body of men were at work. He
could 90 only short distance before
he was forced to turn back and II
was with difficulty he dragged himself
through the smoke at the point Of the
fire He was SO exhausted that he had
to be carried to thesurface. He gave
it as his opinion then that no man
which he had tried to traverse
Gangs Of miners at the Pancoast,
led by Mine Superintendent Joseph
Birtley and assisted by the Throop fire
carried hose into the mine
and fought the fire under great diff
cuties
The United States mine rescue ear,
stationed in Wikesbarre, was sum
moned early in the afternoon and
later on the Lackawanna railroads hos
pital car and the Lehigh Valley COM
pany' mine rescue force from Wilkes
barre came to the scene Three men,
with oxygen tanks and helmets on,
succeeded in penetrating the stope for
100 feet after the blaze at the engine
room had been subdued and they came
upon the bodies OF two men and boy.
Their faces were buried in the wet-culm
as ii they had died trying to escape the
deadly gases and intense heat The
finding Of these bodies led the rescuers
to believe that no one was alive in
the tunnel and they renewed the at
tack on the burning area to reduce the
terrible heat.
When this work had some effect
corps of the expert rescue men, with
the latest style rescue arIncr, pushed
on into the stope and later came upon
several bodies strewn along the road
way where the man had fallen in
their frenzied fight to get to the end of
the stope The bodies were carried to
the foot of the shaft and stacked up
in piles in the narrow space to be
taken cut after nightfall SO that some
Of the horror of the spectacle would
be hidden by the darkness from the
sight of the distracted wives, children
and other relatives of the victims who
the mouth of the shaft
Throop borough officials, deputy |
patrolmen and a squad of the state
were summoned from |
three miles away to take |
car of the crowds There was no vio- !
lence, although it was feared there !
might be some disorderly demonstration
ON the part OF the friends of the for
eigners among the victims.
The colliery is owned and opeated |
by the Price Paneoast Coal company at
the head of which is John r. Dryden,
general manager Of Western collieries |
in this region. II is one Of the largest |
and most up-to-date collieries in the