The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-06
FIFTEEN KILLED AND SIXTEEN INJURED IN
 EXPLOSION AT MULGA
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ly to happen in any mine no matter how well maintained in regard to safety as wherever human hands go certain amount Of carelessness follows. However, if the mine had not such an excellent sprinkling system none of the men within would have come out alive. The ex- ploson was purely local and confined to two entries .Only two of the men were disfigured and burned by the explosion so that it could not have been very heavy. The deadly afterdamp killed the rest I will make my report on this accident in few days.
 Another matter which l would like noted is that an electric miners lamp which was being demonstrated today was responsible for saving several lives. A negro named Harry Jackson, equipped with one of these electric lamps, man aged to bring several men out and others with the lamps tell the same tale. MT. Norris Campbell, the demonstrator of the lamps, deserves great credit
 Disregarded Danger Signal
 An unofficial account of the disaster from the lips of one of the miners who was near the scene of the explosion was to the effect that it was caused by a short circuit of air brought about by a broken trap door. This accumulated an amount of gas and when two foEeigh miners entered the entry after crossing over a danger sign the flame from their miners lamps caused the explosion. It is these two bodies that showed signs of burns and of being blown back, as their bodies were slightly mangled. 1t was known that the trap door was broken and the company officials had a sign posted warning workers not to go in that entry t
 When the explosion occurred the news was quickly telephoned to the surface and the message was at once relayed to the general offices of the operating company at Woodward. A. H. Woodward notified State Mine Inspector Nesbitt, and order ing a special train made up rushed to the scene with DTS. Thomas, Woods, Me Donald ,Denson and Gewin and Superin- tendents J. B. Thomas and William Thomas. This party arrived at tine scene about 1O:45 o'clock. State Mine Inspec- tor Nesbitt arrived about an hour later and Superintendent Darymple who was attending court in Birmingham soon after that. Ben Percy, general superin- tendent at Mulga, and J. J. Shannon, gen. eral superintendent of the Woodward Iron company, also hurried to the scene. John F. Meagher. general superintendent of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company with a special corps of rescuers from the Tennessee company mines, ar GU carry anu dt Ollce piunSeQ III IHe work of rescue. k. B. Sutton, the gov ernment expert and his mine rescue car suffered puncture and did not arrive at the mine until about 1 o'clock However, no bodies had been brought out then, and MT. Sutton at once, went down and was still in the mine searching for bodies late tonight.
 Checking Survivors Difficult
 The explosion greatly excited the men in the mine and they rushed away with out turning in their check numbers This made it very difficult for the timekeep- ers of the company to maintain an ac- curate check and for several hours no one was able to determine just what the toll of death and injury was. It was not until a very late hour that an accu- rate check on all the employees was made
 In the early hours following the explo- sion all tho women folk, children and