OCR Text |
Show SEVENTEEN LIVES LOST. Itctult of ! anil Powder Kxploalon In WmI Virginia Coal Mine. A gas and powder explosion occurred at Norfolk, W. Va Monday in the lllg Four mine of tho Algoma Coat fc Coke company, as tho result of which James Lester, an engineer; John Ilcickie, a Hungarian miner, and fifteen colored miners wero imprisoned In tho initio. Tho gas and smoke was so thick that all rescuing parties were at first driven back, II. F. Frankcnfield, a mine boss, and flcorgo tiasple, a Hungarian miner lucceeded in crawling over the fallen coal and slate after the explosion to tho lights of the rescuing party and were taken out alive, although badly burned and nearly suffocated by the (as. The explosion is said to have been caused by an accumulation of gas catch-lug catch-lug fire from the lamp of a miner, and tills in turn fired six kegs of blasting powder that had been stored back iu tho mines. The explosion knocked down all the brattices for a quarter of a mllu buck toward tho mine entrance, thus, cutting off all of the uir from the men imprisoned im-prisoned behind the debris. |