Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-24
EIGHTEEN BODIES
TAKEN FROM MINE
AFTER EXPLOSION
Rescue Parties Labor to Re-
duce Force of Finley
Mine Horror.
AT LEAST A HUNDRED ARE
DEAD, COMPANY ADMITS
How Many Are Entombed No
One Knows--Oxygen Is
Pumped Into Ground.

PITTSBURGH, April 24.-Fresh
crews today took the places of the
tired workers who had toiled unceas-
ingly and braved death throughout
the night in an effort to penetrate
the dark recesses of the Cincinnati
mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company
at Finleyville, Pa, where an explo-
sion of fire-damp yesterday killed at
least hundred and wrecked the
mine.
Eighteen bodies had been brought
to the mouth of the principal opening
this morning and from there trans
ferred to Monongahela City to be pre-
pared for burial
That the mine contains many more
dead, even officers of the company
admit. However, it will be impossible
to determine the exact extent of the
catastrophe until the mines of main
and cross entries have been explored,
difficult task when 1t is known that
these are choked with fallen timbers
and rocks.
Many men, working with feyerish
haste. are building brattices to carry
the fresh air through the gas-filled
galleries.
General Manager George w
Schlueberger, of the coal company,
early took charge of the situation in
person. and directed the work of
rescue. Crews from the Pittsburgh
station of the United States bureau
of mines were hurried to the little
mining town to recover the bodies
of the dead and rescue such as might
have survived the explosion and the
dread after damp Already parties
of superintendent fire bosses and
mine bosses from other mines of the
coal company and the mines of in
dependent companies in the neighbor-
hood had been at work in the mine,
but they were able to make little
headway. The ventilation system
had been paf'alNzed by the explosion,
and before the workings could be ex-
plored it was necessary to construct
temporary passages through which
the fresh air could be forced.
5iany Found Dead.
Long hours were consumed in this
labor, but in the meantime parties
provided with oxygen helmets had
climbed over the fallen rock through
roiiC VI tiiC ~ liitlDdl tllbi ltS hey
found many dead, but few living, and
when the last of these rescuers APP
peared at the mouth of the slope this
morning they gave it as their opinion
that all the men who had not been
accounted for We're dead
1t was hoped, company officers said,
that the air would soon be advanced,
sufficient to allow a thorough search
of the workings and the number of
dead would then be known.
Two of the company's physicians
accompanied the rescue parties dur
ing the night and We're relieved by an
equal number today They were
ready to render such assistance as
might be needed, if by chance some
of the entombed miners might have
survived the explosion and afterdamp.
The bodies found were not far from
the entrance, among them being that
of a miner named Mccullough, who
had volunteered for rescue work and
was known as one of the best and
most careful miners in the district
He was among the first to enter the
mine after the explosion, and adj
vancing farther than his associates
became lost. He is believed to have
been killed by fall from the roof, as
he was provided with a helmet and
was in no danger from gas.
Rescuers today reported that the
bodies of twenty-one mules had been
seen, the majority of them having
been killed by the explosion.
Latest estimates of the dead are
near a hundred as ii is known that
179 men went into the mine and about
seventy mine are known to have made
their escape.
Soon after o'clock this morning it
developed that the first rescue crew
to enter the mine today had come
upon other dead men, and the bodies
were being brought to the opening
The telephone system in the mine is
being repaired, and report from the
most advanced parties will be re-
ceived at the opening as soon as line
men complete the connections.