The New York herald., 1922-11-07
LOOK FOR 60 DEAD
in MINE EXPLOSION
Which TRAPPED "a
Rescuers Find 30 Alive
100 Feet Below Level
at Spangler, Pa.
BLACK DAMP BLOWS UP
Entombed Men Build Wall
Against Fumes, Mark 1t
With Flame.
GAS FILLS THE CHAMBER
Youth Leads Fellow Workers
to Air in Terrible Dash
for Life.
GAS FILLS THE CHAMBER


Press) Thirty miners from the
Reilly Coal Company's mine. most of
them young men, lie in the Miners
Hospital here tonight. the only
known survivors Of the ninety-four
miners who went into the mine this
morning a few minutes before a ter
rifle explosion.
The exact number of dead has not
been determined. although it was the
opinion Of trained rescue leaders that
fifty or sixty had lost their lives.
There are dead miners strewn all
along the entries down there said
J. J. Bourquin, leader of the United
States Bureau of Mines rescue crew,
as he came from the shaft Of the mine
to- night.
I'VE are doing nothing TO bring out
the dead' he continued. I'VE only
stopped with them long enough TO see
that life had fed and then moved on in
search of the living. Quite bit of mine
remains to be explored. but 1 can say
that IL there are any more living men
in there it won't take us long TO get TO
them"
seven Trips Into Mine.
Bourquin and his men spent the
greater part OF the afternoon i'll the
workings. They were equipped with
oxygen helmets, and SO eager were they
to force their way through the gas that
they made seven trips without pausing
to have the oxygen tanks recharged.
Behind a brattice, hastily constructed
by the entombed miners 20 shut out the
deadly afterdamp from the heading
where they had taken refuge. the res
cuers found four men alive and one
dead.
A little later they came across an
other brattice made OF mine cars and
bearing the legend. burned on with a
miners lamp, There arc twenty-niue
men behind this" The air was so bad
here that sally" the bureaus pet
canary used In testing the air. died.
No attempt was made to tear down
the brattice, for the main entries were
filled with gas. Bureau OF Mines en-
gineers feared such course would send
the deadly poison to where the men, al
ready weakened By hours OF anxiety and
unprotected by oxygen helmets. were
hidden. They hoped in a short time TO
have tho entries cleared of gas, when.
they said, the brattice would be de-
molished.
slate Fall Clogs Entry.
At another point in the mine heavy
I f,..I al II
the entry. Back OF it, rescuers de-
clared. they could hear voices, and they
attacked it vigorously In the hope OF
finding some of the entombed men alive,
although they received no answer to
repeated calls.
Rescue forces were made up OF
skilled miners from Spangler and vicin-
ity In charge OF engineers from the
United States Bureau OF Mines and the
mine rescue crew of the Cambria Steel
Company They worked in short re-
lays. bratticing the workings so as to
control the gas and admit the pure air
from above.
They gave no intimation as to when
the work would be completed. but each
relay, as Il came 20 the surface, said
1t was making progress.
other volunteers picked up the dead
and injured. which were scattered I'm
the workings not far from the foot OF
the shaft The dead were placed In
subterranean room and the injured.
swathed IN blankets, were taken TO the
surface. There first aid station had
been esta blished by Spangler physicians
and the spangier chapter OF the Ameri-
can Red Cross. They were reinforced
later in the day by ten Red Cross
nurses from Johnstown.
state Police Take Charge.
The crowd which assembled almost
Immediately after the explosion con-
tinued 70 grow until nightfall when II
was seen that almost the entire popuia-
ton OF Spangler and Of the surrounding
mining villages had assembled there.
During the day they had been kept In
check by a strong force OF coal and
iron police, but at nightfsll six troopers
of the State police. under a Sergeant
from the Creensburg barracks, took
over the situation.
Linemen and electricians began 20
string wires and place lights at ad-
vautageous points in order that the
work might go on through the night.
The drizzling rain had no effect upon
tho crowd. which included the wives and
children OF many OF the entombed
miners. Some Of them wept almost all
day long. but others stood in stolid
silence closely watching the cage every
time It came up the shaft. They were
so far away however, and the bodies
we're so carefully covered that recogni-
tion was impossible. But II gave rise
TO the belief among the people that all
Of tho closely wrapped forms we're
bodies of the dead and fathered reports
that no less than twenty-five OF the
dead had been recovered.
Mingling IN the crowd were the min
listers from all the churches OF Spangler
and from nearby towns. Conspicuous
were two priests. Father James Pauld-
ing and Father j. D. Cochran, who
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