The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-15
FEAR 100 MINERS:
 LOST THEIR LIVES IN BIG EXPLOSION
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of their waiting loved ones, while nearby stood women and children in deepest grief, fearful lest those they sought should never come forth
 Alex Inama and Pete Tapero were two of the first men to come from the ! workings. They had been in a sec ! tion of the mine near the shaft and made their way through the smoke and dust after the explosion, within a few hours Both, however, were suffering from their experience Kemmerer was filled with grief tonight. The streets were silent as | residents prepared to receive the dead, grimly and sorrowfully.
 Few Eyes Are Dry.
 Among the hundreds of women, children and the few men gathered at the mouth of the shaft, there were few eyes that were dry. As the res cue crews emerged from the shaft the crowd surged forward anXiously and eXpectantly and with the eXcep- of the ones for whom they were wait ing, the watchers broke forth in weeping again.
 The largest number of survivors was brought out at 5 o'clocll this aft ernoon when 20 of the men saved from their underground tomb, came up on the trip" car.
 Fortunately the shift which en- tered the mine for work on the day shift this morning was smaller than usual. Ordinarily 3S5 men are em- ployed in the mine during the two shifts. Today, by good fortrne, many of the miners had left on fishing or hunting Expeditions, or for lther req sns had failed to enter the shaft
 The majority of the men whose bodies still lie in the charred depths are Americans. Among them is a sprnkling of Japanese and some Ital- ians, but they are comparatively few in number. The greatest number of Americans employed in any of the mines of the Kemmerrer district. was working in Mine No. l. Most of them are married.
 oldest Mine In section.
 The wrecked mine is the oldest of the kammerer Coal company here. It was opened about 9 years ago and has been a steady producer The same company operates five other mines here.
 Frontier. the little settlement at the mouth of the mine, was clothed in grief tonight and it was here that the most touching scenes of sorrow were enacted, as the returning sur vivors conveyed the sad news Of the death of dear ones to neighbors. The
 
 shack like cottages were filled with women and children, still stunned by the suddenneSs of the diSaEer
 From every section of the Kem- merer mining district, volunteer workers were coming here tonight as they had been coming throughout the day. Many of the men who arrived soon after the explosion were veteran miners, who had been through such scenes of disaster and grief before.
 The first rescuers to emerge from the mine declared that bodies of the victims were strewn throughout the main slope of the mine. which is mile deep. Death occurred mostly from suffocation. they said, dense black clouds of smoke apparently having rolled over the workers after the blast. which is believed to have centered in Entry 15, near the cen ter of the mine
 Rcscuers Blocked.
 The rescue workers, blocked here in their efforts to reach the entombed men, worked until l o'clock this aft ernoon before they cleared the pas cage way of the debris resulting from a caVe-in. At the Seventeenth entry it was explained that the trip" car track had been torn up, apparent ly by the force of the blast and the rescue crews were unable to proceed further on the car.
 Making their way afoot through the gh debris lined passageway they eventually progressed to all the sections of the workings reached by the force of the blast, carrying, as sisting or directing the survivors out of the passa geway as they went, The little band which had been entombed gathered about the "trip" car at the end of the track of entry Y and was brought up to the surface at o'clock.
 One theory of the explosion ad- vanced soon after news of the blast became known, was that the trip cars on the fifteenth entry either had jumped the track or otherwise caused a spark which had ignited small cloud of dust, This theory was strengthened by the fact that the cars were wrecked and buried in debris. according to mine experts here, but it is considered possible that the explanation of the disaster given by the company may be the correct theory of the cause of the explosion.
 The greatest damage to the interior