Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-06-09
SHUT IN BY FIRE
Miners BURN OR
ARE SUFFOCATED
OF AIS In Spectator Mine
at Butte, 248 Are Ac-
counted For
IS BODIES RECOVERED
: 167 ARE STILL MISSING"
There Is Little Hope of ANY
Of These Being Found Alive
Says Officials

Butte, Mont, June 9.-Thirty. five
bodies had been recovered from the
blazing Spectator mine at u O'Clock
today.
The fire, which has been raging in
the mine since midnight last night, be-
gan when power cable carving a
high voltage current struck the level,
igniting some tar in the 24O0 foot
level. The fire spread quickly to the
other levels and resulting in spreading
of burning gases to the adjoining
Diamond mine.
-Four hundred and fifteen men wero
at work in the Spectator mine when
the fire broke out. Of these, two
hundred and thirteen escaped through
connecting levels of adjoining shafts,
according to officials who are directing
the rescue efforts, which leaves total
OF l67 still unaecounted for. Little
hope Of recovering them alive is held
OUT
When the fire cut off escape from
the lower levels, between forty and
fifty men managed to escape by work
ing their way through pitch dark un-
derground passages, into the Badger
mine, adjoining, and coming out
through its shaft.
Scenes Are Pitiful.
Scenes about the mouth of the
wrecked mine were heartrending.
Groups of women and children had
rushed down the hillside, many of
the holocaust was brought to the sur
the holocaus was brought to the sur
face. Guards prevented entrance to
the gates at the mouth Of the mine,
and they collected outside, where they
stood weeping all morning, while the
rescuers worked.
A long procession of emergency am
balances and hearses filed up the hill
from Butte and filled the yards of the
Speculetor. The supply house was
turned into a morgue and presented a
grewsome spectacle, as bodies were
brought up from the smoke-b -blaekened
pit and laid in long rows on benches.
Where evidences of life were pres
ent. rescue workers worked frantically
to resuscit;.te the victims
Some Heroic Work.
Manager Braley personally headed
a rescue party which descended to the
seven hundred foot level, and assisted
in removing a number of bodies.
The most pathetic scenes attended
the rescue work.
Tears came to the eyes of onlookers
when miner who had escaped the
fire, and arming himself with helmet
had joined the rescue forces, brought
the dead body Of his partner and
closest friend to the surface. His at
tempts to resuscitate the man were in
vain.
The engineer lowered the cage to
the 2200 foot level, and left it stand |
ing, in the hope that imprisoned men
might reach it. Receiving no signal,
he brought it through the fire to the |
surface. The bodies of two miners,
burned to crisp, were found on top !
of the cage when it reached the top.
A Race Whit Death.
Probably the most spectacular sight |
was the cremation of two station tend |
srs. Mike Conway and Peter Sher-
idan, who were trapped like rats in
double decked cage about 20 feet
above the collar of the shaft with the
flames flying from the shat like
gigantic torch.
The two men had just been lowered
nto the mouth of the mine when the
engineer received frantic signals to
ioist. The cage was started toward
he surface, but also up came the
flames. 1t was raee-and the fire
yon. As the cage popped out of the
shaft, the flames enveloped it. TWEEN
" feet above the ground the cage
,topped, and the fire put the hoisting
machine out of commission. Before the
crowd, unable to render aid, the
bodies of the men were burned to a
crisp.