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Show FATAL CAS EXPLOSION. Nearly Fifty Coal Miners Killed and Horribly Hor-ribly Mutilated. Rosltn, Wash., May 11. The first accident acci-dent of any note at the coal mines in this plncj occurred about 1:30 yesterday afternoon, after-noon, just after the afternoon shift had gone on. A driver had just come out of the slope when a tremendous explosion occurred. The shock upset his cars, knocking the mules and driver down, and bruised a man standing 100 feet away. The report was heard all over town and a mile away. The mouth of the slope was surrounded by an anxious crowd which grew in size every minute. The number of men in the slope is not actually known, but it is known to be from forty-four to fifty. There is scarcely a possibility that one of thern has escapecV death. One body was recovered in about two hours, another an hour later, and tyro more at 7:30; ail terribly burned and indicating indi-cating that death was instantaneous, fi sad feature of the disaster is that a large ropor-tiou ropor-tiou of the victims leave large families, and, as they have not had to exceed t o days' work per week during the past year, mapy of them are in straightened circumstance. The scenes about the mouth of the slope were sad in the extreme, me,!, women and children standing about in a dazed condition. condi-tion. The pitiful lamentaMfltos of the negroes ne-groes added to the horrors. ' ; ; Persons who were at the opening of tlie slope pronounced the concussion as terrible, it being sufficient to at least throw a coal-car coal-car some distance from a point where it was standing near the entrance. Baeat volumes of fire-damp and smoke rolled from the entrance, naming the approach dangerous. As soon as it was possible to enter, relief crews were set to work, but their progress was impeded by the smoke and damp, which the tunnel continued to emit. At 4:30 o'clock the first bodies were reached, being those of John Bone and John Campbell. After that the work progressed more rapidly, and at 6 o'clock two other bodies were brought out, and at 7:30 two others, all terribly burned and mutilated. As progress was made the frightful execution exe-cution of the explosion became more manifest. mani-fest. Timbers were torn out for hundreds of feet and the whole interior fearfully wrecked. It is thought that the fire was started in a lower level, and arrangements are being made to turn on water as soon as the fact is developed. The air fans are working to their full capacity, and every effort is being made to recover the bodies of the imprisoned men. All the miners in camp, who are able to work, have volunteered volun-teered their services, and the men are work ing in shifts. As soon as one force is fatigued, another takes its place. Coffee and refreshments are being supplied by the company, and the relief work is progressing as speedily as sympathy and willing men will permit. From fear of wreck of the slope's interior in-terior and the doubt as to the existence of fire in the lower level, there is no way of determining how soon the bodies can be recovered. re-covered. Several of the miner's bodies which have been taken oat are badly mutilated, in one instance, the head being severed from the body. This is the second fatai gas explosion that has occurred in the slope within the past two months. The rtrst r s ilted in the death of a negro driver, to whom careh s ness w: s attributed at the time. Ex Superintendent Renold, who was in the employ of the com-pan com-pan v then, said that the slope was dangerous danger-ous t an unusual degree, and recommended extraordinary precautions. At midnight fourteen bodies had been recovered, re-covered, and all were identified. The work of recovery is very slow on account of the large body of gas. It is now almost certain that every man in t'ie mine was killed, and that the dead will reach forty-eight. |