Salt Lake Tribune | 1910-02-06 | Page 1 | Eleven Dead Men Toll of Explosion

ToS Terrible Disaster Occurs .in Coal Mine at Ernest, Pa., Saturday. CAUSE JI AS NOT YET . ..J . ; ' BEEN ASCERTAINED One Hundred and Ten Other Men iu Same Slope Escape Without Injury. By Leased Wire to The Tribune. INDIANA, Pa., Feb. 5. Elovon men dead is the toll of a gas explosion in tho slope No. 2 of tho Ernest mino of tho Jefferson & Clearfield Coal companj', live mics north of here. The explosion explo-sion occurred in a heading where twclvo workmen wero located, and one of these. Andrew Krazccr, escaped by crawling a quarter of a mile on his stomach to evade, tho noxious gases. His inability lo speak English prevented a lucid explanation of the cause of the explosion. When he saw the lights of the rescuers he moaned and tried to crawl. He was slightly burned, but suffered chiclly from "the cfi'ects of after-damp. He was placed in a car and taken immediately to daylight. Some of tho dead were found nenr the entrance to the heading, others lay along the track at abort discauccs from each other almost at tho face of the coal. Two bodies nearest the face were Continued on Page Two. ELEVEN DEAD MEN TOLL OF, EXPLOSION Continued from Pago One. hnrncd slightly. The position, of the bodies showod tho men had mado desperate des-perate efforts to crawl away from t'he heading. How Krazccr escaped cannot can-not be learned. When he recovers from fright it is thought he may bo able to tell of the accident. Ono hundred and ton were working jn tho samo slope, but escaped through othor headings of the mine, although they were held back for about ten hours by the black damp until a rescue res-cue party of twelvo mine bosses reached reach-ed them-. Ono thousand othor mon working in tho adjoining mines within throe miles, who heard tho concussion, concus-sion, paid no heed to it and did not learn of the disaster until they came out of tho mines csnrly tonight. Four mon who wero laying tracks just within with-in tho mouth of tho mine slope wore knocked unconscious by tho concussion, but were revived later with little difficulty.