The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-04-02
HEROIC RESCUE
Oft47 Miners
Expert ResCuers of Bureau
as Mines Show Bravery.
NtD Entombed Four Days Saved
From Poisonous Gases by
Helmet Men,,

gl15p.rS entombed for four days ant
-four nights i'm the eXplosion-swep
r.5br sf the New River and Pocahon
tag Consolidated Coal Company, a
Lay,aaG. West Virginia, recently b.
SralAed rescuers from the United
sSSsSs.s Bureau of Mines and othe
grcsuntAers discloses a type of hero
Ism staf is not equaled anywhere il
fhg annals of industrial history, {
ieTrsso .of almost everyday sort il
.the ISOLATED mining villages of the
,rrzsisy, but hardly known to the
JatfI1s world.
TYnf bravery of men who go down
go ase sep in ships has been in prose
apE t.etry since the world began
urnEaoly because there is hardly a
xtrg.c.s who has not witnessed the
-.wr-s-cs of the sea at some time or
othsr, hut the miners are in out OF
this 7ay places. in the rugged fast
atssises Oi The country, and the men
xhp performs the heroic deeds
Eyora in the darkness of the under
grsgaJ where the eye of the average
ciLiz..n has never penetrated.
Il " of little wonder then that the
news ~ an explosion in a coal mine
WAS, . hundred or two hundred men
siiirii carries but fleeing interest
"a tte reader and that he has for
h.N. 2 In IL
ol 7sr widows and orphans cease to
,4cbo through the little mining viii
taEq But the million or more min
ers ~ Jhe United States who follow
gh3s most hazardous of callings are
nor entirely forgotten for Uncle
Ssln, iarough the Federal Bureau of
Hlnsx- has at the miners disposal,
WHENEVER q catastrophe occurs. high
Iy crTanized corps of trained res
egJsTs who carry oxygen thing
2py.r1tus which permits them to en-
rex 2 mine Immediately after an ex-
n.aHlun and to penetrate poisonous
-as,s mat would otherwise kill in
.lrr- ranking of an eye.
r. vas on the morning of March
, ftat word was received by d. j..
pl-ear, engineer in charge of Mine
Ees,cna Car No. s, at Glenalum,
West Virginia, that an explosion had
Gsccsrred in the mine of the New i;iy-
,,.r aud pocahontas Consolidated Coal
Company. Fifteen minutes later the
Ndr;o1k and Western railroad had
ss1ypsd all trains between Glenalum
and Kenova, a distance of 104 miles
and had cleared the track. A special
asyEne WAS attached and the rescue
car vas taken the entire distance to
!E~zoya in three hours. At that
ys8fE. the car was turned over to the
c.kesapeak & Ohio, which had also
prepared for a clear track. With the
se-o.d largest engine in the world
s1laohed TO the rescue car, the 1873
rxs.srs between Kenova and Quinni-
nscot, nine miles from the scene of
: ,ns disaster, was reached in three
hours and sixteen minutes, which is
szsi TO be the record time on this
iIsSoastain road. From there the res
Ccps car was taken to Layland in
shCst time and a few minutes later
,gss Iescuers were on the ground
ready for serious work.
ny the time the bureaus rescuers
reached the scene, State Mine In
gssgiOT Earl Henry and a number
81 Ais assistants, were already there
.ftt the work of rescue started, tho
En;he inspectors having general
charge of the work. Shortly after
wards eleven miners from the mines
ns 1he United States Coal Company
at Gary, West Virginia, who had pre-
viSns'y been trained in rescue work.
10y ,s. Bureau OF Mines men arrived
irnh also James w. Paul, of Pitts
bsygh, Pa, engineer in charge of
AN the rescne work of the bureau of
Zines. Paul at once organized the
bGy.au's rescuers and the trained
,Hss from Gary, West Virginia. into
9ir.s corps and offered the services
al the men to Chief State Mine In
spsClOr Henry and to the manage
raeSt OF the mine. The efforts of
the State inspectors and the bureaus
men were directed at once toward
resairing the damage done by the
,ssplos,On and thus restoring the
n.IEs 10 It's normal condition. Brat
trices or doors which guide the cur
rents 0f fresh air had been blown
Gown and these were re-established
50 that the fan might blow the poi
SonOus gases from the mine.
At was a definite. serious campaign
'SI,h the reseuers. Restore the mine
as y,S went along and then you
~oUid\De in position to rescue en-
Losabed mea. The old method of
rushing madly into a gas-choked
mine 10 be either overcome by the