The Alaska daily empire., 1922-10-17
umn down shafts with hose connec tions every loo feet.
 Richards Statement

umn down shafts with hose connec- tions every 100 feet.
 Richards Statement
 Rickard, who personally investi- gated the catastrophe, declares that the failure to stop the huge ventilat- ing fan at the mouth of the Null doom shaft absolutely shut the men off from their only possible path of escape. He says "The Argonaut has two shafts. The main shat is used for hoisting and pumping; by means of 1t the miners go to aud re- turn from their work The MuiLiGCn shaft is the secondary exit; has a hoist that can be operated to a depth of 800 feet only; below that the shaft is no more than 3 sJstem of linked raises, down to the 3900- foot level. From the bottom level, 900 feet deeper, the only secondary exit is by means of the raises that connect the successive levels oE ihe south side of. the main shat.t. A system of ventilation is mainta in ed by means of a Srocco fan 2 thn Muldoon shaft; this fan. has a | 'mi- nal capacity of 6o,000 cubic fa,. of air per minute; 1t sucks the air out of the mine and thereby makes the main shaft a downcast In order further to direct the fresh air into the bottom workings, the upper ", els where they connect witl the shaft on the south side are closed by doors. whereas the 4,5O0. 4,65D and 4,S00 levels are left open, So that the air is forced down the main shaft, past the upper levels. into the deepest three levels, up the raises to the 3,900-foot level, along tha. level. and up the Muldoon shal-. The 47 men were working on the loves. tbree levels, south of the main shaft.
 Status of Fan
 Tt is evident that as soon as the fire started in the main shaf the established system of ventilation would cause the smoke to go where the men were at work and to enter the only otheH exit. the Mu'doon shaft The, question arises i.nmedi- ately, should the fan have Teen stopped or even reversed? This IS already subject of earnest ccntro versy. To me it seems obvious that the stopping of the fan and the re- Versing of the ventilation offered the only chance for the escaIe of the men at the bottom of the mine The heat of the fire would c,use the air to ascend in the main shaft and any opposite momentum left from the artificial ventilation. afte, the fan had been stopped, could be checked promptly by closing the tor of the Muldoon shaft for time. Ii would not be necessary to reverse the fan-to do that, I find, would have required many hours. because the fan is not constructed so as tc be reversible quickly If then the air currents had been turned, the men might have climbed out of the mine through the Muldoon raises provided the ladders were in good repair. It would have been no easy escape. for to climb 5000 feet of lad ders would require six or seven hours and could be done only by an athletic man. but at least they could have reached the bottom of the Mul. doon, at the 3,90O-foot level and there awaited food and succor. If the fan was not stopped the lower workings Of the mine would become a deadly tran; the men would be caught even worse than a rat in trip, for many Of the rats in the Argonaut mine did escape through the Muldoon shaft"