The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-30


 mines yesterday morning at 11:20 o'clock, 20 miners, at
 least two of them white, were killed, and eight, six of whom
 are white, were fatally injured. All of those entombed, save four, whose names are un-
 known, and who are unques-
 tionably dead, were delivered to the surface at an early hour
 last night.
 FALLING STONE CAUSE The explosion is said to have beem caused by fall Of rock. which relens~a large aosAtity of x~~ inside the nine, which was tgrifed by sninerss lamp
 At fhe time of she explosion
 there were 1OG men in the mine. After the explosion the dead and injured were sfrewn over ! space Of ..5out 600 feet. The air brnttIce. were wrecked by the ex- pIosion, making ft impossible to get pure air in all parts of the mine. Within less than ain hour aftrr the explosion many of the dead and injured had been taken out of the mines, according to miners. Mine workers from every section ot the Birmingham district responded 10 | the call for help. The little hamlet 1t [ od VI i workers doing rescue work, with au- | tomo bile and spectators. The rescue work was rushed all during the day and volunteers to go into the mine fwere plentiful.
 l As the injured were brought out thoy were rushed to the Birmingham infir;r. l ary Late last night 1t was reported | that their condition was serious. Noih- | ing could be said according to hospital officials. as to whether they would re- cover of not.
 1 DOZEN SLIGHTLY HURT | About dozen miners were slightly | injured They remained around fhe
 mine. however. offering their sersic~s wherever they might be peeded. Vita l black and in some cases burned, faces. dim eyes and low vitality they told all they knew about the explosion. II hap pened like a flash, all agreed. Mono
 
 and with a miners instinct they si : simultaneously dropped to the sroun5 | and covered their faces.
 i CT heard 1t coming" said one. "InstinctfvcIy I fell, as to get i the benefit of the purest air. which | was near the ground. don't know what happened, hut I was not un- conscious. covered my head and | face with my jumper. but my arm got burned some way. The evplOs1on l was quiet. IL sounded like the I wind coming. It was just as quick | ns that" he said. snapping his !, fingers.
 1 W B. Blank. federal district en- gineer. bureau of mines, reached the mines soon after the explosion, and 1 stayed underground doing rescue work until last night. Morris W. Bush, pres ident of the Majestic Coal company. which company owns and operates the mine. was on the scene a few houss after the explosion.
 BRATTICES WRECKED The explosion occurred in the fourth north right entry, according to miners who were slightly injured and wkp were several hundred feet away from | that entry. They said that small pieces 1 of coal were shattered from the walls and the top of the shaft and the brat | tices which were built of rock, were 1 completely wrecked. and that the ex- plosion ran course of about 500 feet. | indicating that the quantity of gas ig- nited was very large
 l In only few minutes after the ex- | plosion occurred men were at tho mouth of the mine ready to descend | As they went down the brattices, which supply the necessary fresh air. were re- | paired so as to make descent possible 1 without further loss of life. None of
 those who did rescue work was in-
 jured
 i. ONE FAN BROKEN The mine has two fans. which are used to supply the air. The larger of ; the two was broken and had not been running yesterday. but the smaller ono was in operation. Miners said that the air supply had always been plentiful. ltand that the two fans were kept so that if one was broken the other might 1 be used
 As the dead men were brought out they were carried to two houses near- by, where they were dressed. Am- balances and automobiles piled raptd- iy between the hospital and the mine. Anxious women stood around the busy Linen all day. supplying sandwiches. vtcwels. buckets and other needed are ticles.
 Miners at Majestic said that fatal explosion occurred there about i've
 tC~ntinued es Fage TweD