Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1923-08-16
. % RESCUED As
WATER RISES IN
WIRE CkEO MINE
Blast Mile Below Surface Entombs
From 1875 to 200 Workers-Holi-
day Saves Many

OF the kemmerer Coal Company had
been rescued alive up to 3:l5 o'clock
Tuesday afternoon, according to re-
ports from the mine received at the
Sffice OF the Kemmerer Carnara
The reports said rescue parties had
counted over 20 dead bodies in their
progress through the workings.
There was no fire, according to the
newspaper.
CASPER, Wyo., Aug. IA A spe-
cial dispatch to the Casper Tribune
this afternoon from Kemmerer, Wyo.,
states that the actual number of men
entombed is 135. Previous dispatches
received here had placed the total at
two hundred.
Rising Water Threatens Survivors
CHEYENNE, Wyo., Aug. IA A
special dispatch received from KEN
merer, Wyo., by the State Tribune
Leader late today said that volun-
teer workers this afternoon were dig
ging desperately in an effort to reach
the entrapped miners before rising
watr put stop to the rescue work
and precluded the possibility of any
of the men escaping alive.
Two pumps which generally remove
water from the mine of the Kemmerer
Coal company at the rate of $4,000
gallons per minute, working twelve
hours day and then resting for two,
stalled following the explosion on a
lower level and the water has since
been rising steadily. Fans are still
working throughout the mine.
Explosion Mile Below Surface
KEMMERER, Wyo., Aug 14-Mi-
ners working in No. mine of the
. Kemmerer Coal company to NUM-
Der estimated from 1875 to 200, were
entombed this morning after an ex-
plosfon. The explosion occurred in
the lower levels. A cavern at entry
No. Is, cut off all communication with
. the men, who were working around
the twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth
entry.
Relief workers Immediately went to
work. AS, they progressed to the sew
ententh entrye, the body of pump
man was found.
Black clouds of smoke from the
mine fan were the only indications
of an explosion at first. No detona-
ton was heard above ground, as the
explosion was estimated to have talk
en- place nearly mile underground.
Nothing definite concerning the
condition of the entombed men has
: come from the depths of the mine,
but experts in mine rescue work de-
clared they saw little hope of rescu-
ing many of them.
A United States mine rescue car
which left Kemmerer this morning for
Utah fields nearby hastily was ord
cred to return.
The property is known as the From
tier Mine. 1t is about one mile from
the city limits of Kemmerer.
A runaway trip car which plunged
from the rails caused dust explosion.
according to word received from the
mine.
Most of the men employed at the
mine were not working today because
tomorrow is a religious feast day, and
the miners had laid off to prepare for
its proper celebration.
The explosion, according to mine of
ficlals, was the first serious accident
of its kind in the district in eighteen
years. At that time, twenty-five miners
lost their lives in an explosion at
Diamondville, near here.
Two wine rescue cars were on the
way to the scene of the disaster soon
after it was reported. One, the res
cue car of the Colorado New Mexico
district, which was in Wyoming on
an educational tour, was enroute TO
Rock Springs, Wyo., when it was
halted at Green River. The car re-
turned Immediately to Kemmerer and
H. E. Mum in charge of the car no.
lifted the Denver, Pittsburg and Wash
ington offices of the bureau of mines
of the explosion.
Fatalities Reach One Hundred
KEMMERER, Wyo., Aug IS -
Kemmerer resigned itself to its Grief
"wednesday night the last hope eore
of wives, sweetrcari; and sisters .hat
5'iei' men nigh not be among he
scores Of charred b. dies brought from
the exp csieh tern mine No. | of tie
Kenmeler Coal company.
Exactly 100 men persisted in the
explosion early Tuesday, the final
checkup of mine officials shows All
but three bodies have been found and
the search goes on for these.
As the bodies lay in silent morgues
representatives of the greatest tragedy
ever visited upon this little mining
town of 1000 souls, the survivors
canned in the heavy pail of sadness
d, .'eburv their dead.
4Eiforts of relief organizations to
assist in caring for the bereaved and
homeless WERE steadfastly thwarted
bv word from the citizens of Kem-
merer that they had sufficient money
with which to bury the victims and