The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-20
BY JACK BETHEA

Acton, November 19.-(Special.)- JAS bad
as was Tuesdays explosion and as dis
astrous as it was, the people here and the
officials of the Alabama Fuel and Iron
company have much to be thankful for in
that the disaster was no worse.
There was combination of circumstan-
ces which tended to prevent greater loss
of life and many a miner, safe in the
bosom of his family tonight, is thanking
Providence that the explosion did not
come today or at would have got me
sure" Had the explosion happened at an
other time it is probable that the dead
would have numbered over so.
Monday was pay day at the mines and
it is customary for numbers of miners to
lay off the day after pay day. Owing to
this practice less than one-half of the
normal force of the mine was under
ground at the time of the explosion.
On account of the scarcity of men the
company yesterday decided to make it a
''three-quarter' day. That is to work only
three-fourths of the day instead of until
the regular quitting time. Consequently
a number of men had assembled to the
surface before the explosion occurred at
3:45 o'clock.
How Burns Kittrell Died
Take for instance the drivers. Every
driver in the mine, with the exception of
Burns Kittrell, the boss driver, was out.
He would have escaped had he not re-
turned to the mine to clean the slope after
all other drivers had ascended Kittrell
ha In in ha uoiro
fore the explosion occurred.
Kittrell was well known in jefferson
county. He will be remembered as having
been mentioned in connection with the
Lewisburg murders. He was indicted with
the accident, but it will be very hard to
determine just what did happen. The ex-
plosion, according to the best of our in
formation, occurred between the sixth
right entry and the eighth left entry.
Most of the men died from the poisonous
gases. Only the men directly In the way
of the explosion were killed outright.
las soon as we heard of the explosion
we notified all the officials concerned We
are in receipt of many kilograms and let
ters from many of our customers express
ing sympathy and regrets at this accident.
1t is the first accident suffered by this
company"
Acton mine No. is located about six
miles from Helena, in Shelby county,
on a branch of the Louisville and Nash
Vile railroad. The mine is the
Helena tCahaba) seam and is opened
by a single track slope. The coal has
slate roof which requires only ordinary
timbering for safety. The coal is shot
from the solid with black powder and
monobel, 1t was stated at the offices
of the company The mine was venti-
lated by an 1S-foot Crawford & Nc
Crimmon fan on the split system, and
the coal is hauled from the entries to
the slope by mules and to the tipple
by 22x42 hoist. Pipe lines are in
stalled at the entries. The superin
tendent of the Acton mines is j. G.
Steele.
Survivors Stories the Same
The survivors of the disaster, Jerry
Williams, Nick Alfaire. Frank Coulous,
Gus Coulous and Roster Chackeranous,
who We're rescued alive, all tell prac-
tically the same story concerning the
explosion. The Greeks say that two
shots had been heard in the eighth
left entry and that following the sec
ond shot came the explosion and rush
of air. AS they rushed out of their
entry they were met by a great volume
of black smoke. They rushed by the
eighth left entry and stumpled over
two bodies on their way out and final
ly managed to reach the purer air of
the main slope and were rescued.
The rescuers found the bodies mostly in
the sixth right and the eighth left en-
tries The miners who died from asphyx-
iation were found face downward on the
ground in an effort to avoid the damp.
The purer air is to be found near the
ground and they had evidently taken ad-
vantage of this fact. The men killed
were badly mangled. One miner had his
head blown completely off, it being found
a few feet away from the rest of his body.
Among the workers of the Tennessee
company were John w. Groves, the in
structor in rescue work; James r. Nc
Cue superintendent of the Edgewater
mines; John r. Brown, superintendent OF
No. mines: DIR. w. S. Rountree Angus
Brown, a rescue expert; John Meagher,
Francis Brawler. James Smith, DR.. N. C.
Carraway, Jim Kirkpatrick, Hugh
Lynch, Tom Williams, Robert Fox, Mike
Dugan, Ollie Carl. J. Ridley. p. J. Crane,
Edward Ball. Robert Hamilton and A. 5.
Elliott
With the government car were E. b.
Sutton, III. Fl. Hamilton Chief Nesbitt l.
w. Newley and DUPONT experts.