Norwich bulletin., 1922-11-07
Many Fatalities in
 Explosion in Mine
Of 94 Miners in the Mine 55 Are Missing-25 Probably Have Been Killed. .

Have Been Killed.
 Spangler, Pa, Nov. 6.-(By The A. P.)-Fifty-five of the 94 miners who went down into the Reilly mine of the Reilly Coal company here this morning, a few minutes before the workings were torn by an explosion, were unaccounted for, when the rescue crews came up the shaft at 6 o'clock tonight Twenty-Five they said had probably been killed and fourteen had been taken to a hospital badly hurt.
 Hope that some of the missing men were still alive was reflected in reports which came to the surface that brat tice, built of old timbers by the miners after the explosion cut off a part of No. heading to the left of the main entry. Look behind this waIl," had been burned in a smooth place on a timber by an acetylene lamp.
 But no attempt was made to tear down the brattice, for the main entries were filled with gas. and United States Bureau of mine engineers feared that such 8 course would send the deadly poison to where the men already weakened by hours of anxiety and unprotected by oxy- gen helmets were hidden. They hoped in short time to have 1 the entries cleared of gas when they said the brattice would be demolished They determined upon this course after | them from Pittsburgh, had died in the | foul air.. At another point in the mine a heavy fall of slate from the roof had com ! pletely clogged the entry. Back of it rescuers declared, they could hear voices and they attacked it vigorously in the hope of finding some of the entombe6
 men alive, although they received nc answer to repeated calls.
 Rescue forces were made up of skill ed miners from Spangler and vicinity ir
 charge of engineers from the U. S Bureau of Mines and the mine rescue | crew of the Cambria Steel company whici arrived here early this afternoon. The!
 worked unceasingly in short relays, brat +icing the workings so as to control th' <, sas and admit the pure air from above 1, They gave slo' intimation as to whel 1 the work would be completed but eaci relay, as it came to the surface, sait | they were making progress near the bot tom. .> Other volunteers gathered the dead an' f injured which were scattered in tn
 workings not far from the foot of tn
 shaft. The dead were placed. in a sub l terranean room and the injured, swathe in blankets, were taken to sthe surface
 There a first aid station had been es ltablisheh.
 The crowd which assembled almos immediately after the explosion, contin ued to grow until nightfall when almos the entire population of Spangler an Isurrounding villages had assembled there
 The driEzling rain which fell dur ing the day, had no effect upon tn crowd which included the wives. an l children of many of the entombed mineri
 Some of them wept almost all day long but others stood in stolid silence closel watching the cage. every time it cam l up the shaft and occasionally thinkin
 they recognized the outlines of ia : maliar form. They were sa far ava 1 however, and the bodies tweFe so careful
 covered that recognitionf was imposs
 ble. But it gave rise to the lEelief, anon
 the people, that all. of the closely. wraI ped forms were bodies of ehe dead.
 Mingling in the crowd were. the mir isters from all ,the churches of Spane
 Ter and number from nearby town Conspicuous were two Roman Cathol priests, Father James .Pauling and Fatl CT J.~D. Cochran, who wearing raincoat and4 rubber boots, over their clothin
 sought to comfort the weeping we
 men.
 They were among the first to reac the mine after the explosion, and in short time were taken down the sha , to give dissolution to five men near Il
 bottom. l''-a Max Whelen,. a eager, was workir with his couples, lad named Cavendis at the .bottonf of the shaft, when .tf
 explosion occurred. Seizing the bo i Whalen put ] n on his back and startC
 hand-over-hand on a water pipe for u
 surface. When almost half way | some one at the top started the cat : from the. bottom and waiting his oppo tunity, Whalen jumped to the top of u cage and rode with the boy to safety J. J. Bourquin, in charge of the b reau of mines forces, took over u . rescue work upon his arrival here tn afternoon The fan house, which hs
 been wrecked by the explosion W; l /; quickly repaired and the fans start y to clear the workings of black dam I Mules were Sent down on the cage g assist in the distribution of quantities
 Humber used in the building of bra e Itices. Many of the rescuers suffered fro ' gas and numbers of them were brought = the surface, where, after receiving fir ,, aid they insisted on returning to t ;, workings
 e Three of the Cambria SteeldcompanJ n crew were among those most serious n affected, but H. W. Darr, in commal d of the Cambria car, said that all wou
 recover.
 Spangier lies in the Allegheny Man . tains in Cambria county, some 20 mil
 north of Johnstown, and is the center an important bitwinous coal productl
 fdistrict. The Reilly mine was closed doy i, Hast summer by the strike, but resum e operations early in September. Normal s lit employees about 150 men. but Mondi | is usually what the miners term sit e day. There are many American-Do
 4miners in lthe working force numbers