Evening star., 1924-04-29
All Hope Abandoned That
Any of III Caught in
VuIture Hollow Explosion
May Still Be Alive.
RESCUERS PENETRATE
SHAFT AT GREAT RISK
Twisted, Broken Bodies Indicate
Force of Blast-Many Stricken
With Picks in Hands-Unex-
plored Tunnels Filled With
Deadly Vapor, Baking Workers.
BY HAROLD *. PHILIPS
tStaff Correspondent of The StarD

BENWOOD, w. Va, April 2o-
-lhe smoking mouth of Vulture
Hollow mine today began to give up
Its shattered victims. Rescue squads,
after penetrating more than half
way back, sent out word that prob
ably not soul had lived to tell of
the explosion yesterday.
One hundred and eleven men had
been checked into the pit only few
minutes before the blast thundered
through its darkened tunnels. All
that was left of forty-fve of them
had been found at dawn today, burn
ed and broken bodies, sprawline
where they had been trapped with
out d minutes notice.
Rescue squads gathered here from
est Virginia, Maryland Pennsylya-
mia and Ohio were straining anew to
dlsentomb the seventy-one others, but
the farther the sappers penetrated
the more hopeless became the pros
pect that any could have lived All
but two of the victims found thus far
died in their tracks, many with their
picks in their hands.
Deadly Gas Inside.
The blast that swept through the
mine, which is operated by the Wheel
ing Steel Corporation, was accompanied
by momentary but terrific fire, and
the bodies of the men were scared hor-
ribly, besides being battered by the I'M
pact of the explosion. What mine
experts declare finally seal the doom
of any possible survivors are choking
vapors of deadly gases.
Only two of the men found thus
far showed sign of life. They were
discovered only 800 feet from the air
shaft through which the rescuers are
digging their way. Both were breath
ing family, but before DIR. A. B.
Rhinehart could get them out to the
fresh air they died and their bodies
were left where they were found.
Working Near Shaft.
Those two miners had been work.
ing close to the air shaft and the
explosion had been sufficiently spent
when it reached them to spare them
instantaneous death. They had drag
ged their battered bodies several hun
dred feet after being felled, but before
they could reach the safety of the
killed them.
Several hundred feet back the first
rescue squads to penetrate the wall
of debris the explosion piled up came
upon the bodies of a section boss and
his son. The boy had been holding
a light for his father while the
parent hacked at a vein of coal with
his pick and each was found stark
dead just as he had worked.
Bodies Crowded Together.
AS the sappers penetrated few
yards at a time the bodies were
found at closer intervals and two
crews of five men each were lying
together in death; even in the side
passages. where mine officials had
hoped some of the men may have
had time to barricade themselves,
only twisted victims and staggering
gas fumes awaited the anxious calls
of the rescuerS.
Vulture Hollow, where the air shaft
sinks three hundred feet into the
bowels of the earth, is at the end of
a road that is so precipitous and so
muddy that it is impossible to all but
even the hardest mixers. There the
rescue squads have pitched their
tents and are working in shifts.
Tell Horrible Stories.
Every few minutes a rescuer was
dragged out more dead than alive and
between gasps they told stories that
staggered the imagination and left
their listeners pale. One carried in his
hand a bit of twisted tin that was
once a miners lunch pail. Scarcely
able to talk, he gesticulated toward
the crushed pail and said:
Look in il. look in it. My God, it
must have been awful"
Inside were several sandwiches and
Two hard-boiled eggs. The bread of
toasted and the eggs were smashed TO
bits by the explosion. Others carried
out pieces of lunch pals that had been
blown to bits. Even pick handles
were snapped off short and the roof
of the mine was blown down into The
Dassageways in many places
Gas Overcomes Birds.
Half a dozen canary birds carried
into unexplored tunnels by advance
squads were brought to the surface
living unconscious in their cages. All,
however, had been hurried out into
the air before life had ceased to exist
and they were soon revived, and each
brought mute message OF the hope
iessness of the situation.
"There isn't a chance that any of
Hhese men are alive" was the unani-
nous verdict of the rescuers as they
we're helped to the surface to rest
for few minutes beside a warm
:.amp fire and drink hot, stimulating
S,offee before donning gas masks again
and return to the dogged task of
5oring a new tunnel through the
debris.
Garry Rolls Of Canyms.
Then came dawn, gray as the
graveyard mist, painting the muddy
s,iIls of Vulture Hollow in sulien hues'
and with the day came the palnI11.
1Gontinued On RaEe 2 -Cnannn