The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-26
THREE RESCUE PARTIES FAIL TO SAVE VICTIMS
 OF BIG LAKE DISASTER
I THsity-Tw Men Under Erie, Including 10 Who
 Tried to Aid Others Gas
 Fumes Halt Efforts to Reach Imprisoned Work

f'fS ${/ExE 7lS f't----
 Cleveland. July 26- Federal officials .lnvestigating the water works tunnel ldisaster under Lake Erie yesterday X Afternoon ordered all attempts to reach the bodies of 12 men still in the Tunnel abandoned until today. Y T Tests of the gas in the tunnel fthrough which the rescuers had to 1pass showed that 1t is highly ex- Iplosive and the officials feared a sec slcnd explosion. An attempt will be made to pump out. tneRgas.
 A All hope that any of the 12 trapped lmep are alive has been abandoned. kTen bodies, those of members of two Ifescue parties which tried to reach the doomed men, but themselves suc- '' cunbed to the gas, are in the morgue. Four Investigations, city, county. 4 state and federal, will be started to- T day to deterrnine the cause of the ,; gas explosion near the five-mile crib !; end of the tunnel. The lack of safey }pu1motors, at the crib and shore ends 4 of, the 16, 6,O00 foot tunnel also will be 1investigated.
 Third Party Successful,
 I The efforts of Gustav C. Van Duzen. N ''auperintendent of Water Works Con- iI IStructibn, and the members of the 1.-two rescue parties to reach the inn I1rts0ned men without gas helmets or |puImotors resulted in the increase in V fhe death list. Yesterday afternoon a fthird rescue party, equipped with Y these safety devices entered the tun- |} mel and recovered the rescuers, 10 of fWhom were dead. Van Duzen was 'I 3mong the rescrers who were revived. !. L Headed by D. J. Parker and |. M. Jones Of the United States Bureau of I Mines, who arrived here from Pitts l burgh with the mine rescue car, the 4 third party of rescuers penetrated { zoo feet into the tunnel from the crib end. Five .men were with the two experts and even equipped with the 5nas helmets they found difficulty in nialxing their way so heavy was the \ ma They found that the force of the \ explosion had torn up the small car ttracks on the bottom of the tunnel
 and had twisted air and conduit
 win their Safety lanterns they \ could see at the. far end of the tunnel I that q large cave-in, had occurred. They did not spend much time inves- :I41kating the condition of the tunnel 'tas they were concerned with getting I out the bodies of the rescuers who I were sc4ttefed along the tunnel They 4 jnarried afliathel men back to the air bJock and finailS brought them up 10 i4ins @ nslIseea raSfiy
 From what they could learn of con- f 9litions in the tunnel Parker and Jones 4 declared, their belief that the workers
 bodies are burfe in sevea or eight ,fBet of debris and that it will be the 4 work of at least two days to dig Ihe em z out.
 According to the Federal .Evestiga- tors tfis electric wiring in the tunnei \ was faulty After they had entered jsafhe tunnel with the rescue party they Y ordered the electric power shut off. 9They would not give an opinion. as to inc cause of the explosion but many I think that some woriSrnan probably j 5abbed his pick into :are,e pocket Of I eas which caused the blast. Others \ ray that crossed light wire may have been the cause.
 z How Rescuers Diod
 ~ The rrstxvescue srarss consisted of fEevcn men. Four of then rcrished Hand tEree were saved. The second ] rescue party comDrised II men. Six 5 of these lost their lives. The nrst party ' accomplished po.hing. The second 4 sated one Of the first relief expedi- ;,tion. First intimati,n Of tho disaster " came when William J Dolan, lock d fknder in the air chamber at the en- q trance to the tunnel heard an explo- ' sioh about 9 80 p. m.
 s& He was thrown against the door Z leading from the air chamber into the ifunnel. This door was jammed by,
 the. blast and fumes poured out of the ,tunnel, almost overcoming him. He
 idnany managed to close it and, re-
 yeasing the high pressure from the air jchamber. opened the door leading to lAhe crib above and gave the alarm to men at the surface of the lake
 sf 6upt John Johnson summoned vol-
 ,unteers and led the first rescue party lof volunteers down the elevator and Nifty feet from the bottom of the shaft they began to stumble, crumple and lfalI; overcome by fumes. DOlan, Mho }y1lad resumed his pot in the air cham tEber, rushed after them and. summon atne help, saved three.
 Two hours later Van Dpzen organ z ized the second rescue party and
 Hound Michael Keogh of the first res- { cue party still alive and dragged him out, They went in again, only to suf-
 fer the same fate which had befallen
 the first party. Finally four of them imanaged to stagger back to safety.
 The others ddd not come out until the third rescue party was organized.
 The section of the tunnel where the men were working is HOO feet from
 shore and 50 feet under tho surface of
 the lake.