Show S THE THE TELEGRAM SALT SJ T LAKE TEI TELEGRAM GRAhf SUNDAY BUNDA Y MORNING Bee l 2 Town Towns Towns' Mourn Bingham Bing Mi Mine e Victims Victim 1 1 ft X v S t S Sr r I f 4 f t 4 I l f 5 I f i r J S 1 S t I S I 1 if Miner Mider Who Who Escaped With Injuries q Describes s ibes Details of of Tragedy y f The Christmas Christmas' spirit of both Lark and l has has has' been teen touched by bY- sorrow Each community mourns the he deaths of Percy lercy r P Ic Lax Lark and tRoy Roy Lancaster r who died lied In the depths of the B Bingham m Mines property at ut t Lark Thursday night when a round of shots snots p- p prematurely pre pr- maturely exploded While fri friends condole on ol with the of Jh th the men who d died ed they also congratulate L. L F. F Hamel and andUs Us his his family for Hamels Hamel's miraculous escape from front the tho terrific baptism of scorching flame and hurled blast-hurled rock that killed his comrades Hamel suffered a n. fractured nose ose a fractured skull and minor laceration lacera ions tion He Ho sa sat in his b bed d' d In his home at Midvale l Saturday and aid In the presence pres pres- ence nce of Edward brother ot of f the man who was killed and shift boss oss in charge chargo ot of the hoist related details of ot the tragedy LOTS OF TR TROUBLE UBLE Things hadn't gone well for weeks peeks he said We were working In n No 2 The day side didn't have jave any tro trouble ble but everything seemed to go gO wrong at night The pump ump wouldn't work work and and everything that hat hapP happen n to sl slow w up work Vork se seemed med to happen We vere were working work- work lag ing ng at the bottom of an Inclined shaft laft It It pitched downward ab about ut thirty degrees degre s. s It was was' was was' time Ume for our our lunch hour shot and Percy came down own to drag the sixteen-foot sixteen suction sueon sue sue- ti tion on n hose from the bottom of f the hole lole to the bulkhead that protects th the le pump pumps Percy was standing about bout twenty feet from the bottom of f the shaft haft alongside the pump buton but hut huton on n the opposite side of tho the shaft from rom the pump I If he had peen been b behind be- be hind Ind the bulkhead he would have esc escaped ped with his life I Iwas was split split- ting ng fuses ruses with my knife and Lancaster Lancaster Lan- Lan caster aster w was touching them with his torch I split the last fuse Lancaster lit it it Beat It I r yelled yelled- Lancaster Lancaser Lancas- Lancas ter er Whirled and Just then then the first shot hot let g go I dont don't know k what hap hap- h happened p- p ened after that 1 didn't know any anymore anymore more moro until I l g got t outside But Edward o operating the le hoist that pulled pulled- skip the skip with its s cargo o of men or ore from the bottom ottom of the hole pieces peces together what followed the blast STARTS U UP SHAFT Knocked almost senseless senseless' by the thelow blow low that mutilated his face Hamel subconsciously started up the shaft draggIng ragging himself up the steep Incline in inline In- In line dine by the rope attached to the skip skip kip and running a gamut of or fifteen fit teen een separate dynamite blasts He miraculously escaped the flying lyIng rock ock that must have nave filled tIlled the bore and nd entering the shaft after fter the final explosion found him struggling gling towa toward d the surface Wheres the others asked Ahead of ot me H Hamel mel mumbled Realizing something had haI gone wrong Edward hurried down own the shaft The acrid smartIng smarting smart- smart Ing ng powder smoke almost asphyxIated asphyxiated ted him Groping in darkness he touched the ody body o of ot one of the dead men and then compelled by lungs that hat threatened to burst rushed cack back ack to fresher air all Other mi miners rs by this time had the accident Frank Bul- Bul loth and Leonard Leonad Steele descended the he shaft haft while wl-jl Edward rushed to a phone and summoned medical aid ald Bulloch and Steele made their way ay to the bottom of the sh shaft tt the bodies of and Lancaster ancaster lay amid fifteen tons of quartz the blast had 10 loosened sene 1 The miners fought rock and gasses in effort an-effort to recover the the bodies bodies Bullock Bulock Bul Bul- lock ock was ds almost overcome but when he je had almost reached his la lat last t gasp he 10 remembered the compressed air hose lose that supplies le pneumatic tic tia ham ham- mers He o opened ned th the valve and the theissing hissing issing air dissipated the stinging powder fumes BODIES TAKEN OUT The bodies were vera ta taken ceh to the sur- sur face ace was h mutilated muti- muti l ted about the face and head Lancaster Lancaster Lan- Lan caster aster had a single wound above the i-ft i i eye but examination n proved that lat his neck was broken Th The body of ze was as re removed removed removed re- re moved to Bingham while the body of f Lan Lancaster aster w V was s taken n to tol Edward enl razO f stated atur Satur- day ay that Thursday was his brothers brother's first Shift hitt in N No 4 wine winie Prior to that hat he had been p for or I No 2 V Percy also had felt the malign Influence that seemed t to hover over the night crew in No 4 and li had d told his brother earlier in the evening that the on-the following d day y he intended seeing the superIntendent superintendent super super- about a transfer to toan- toan an another an- an other job Edward stated that wh when ri n hi he heard the blast he ho experienced experienced a premonition that something was wrong rong Usually he explained the miner Iner helper and upon upon spitting the last fuse jump int into the skip and signal gnal for the then n istman to pull them to safety This time th the blast c came une but no signal Th There re was a a crosscut in the a about out out- thirty thirty- feet from the bottom and nd Edward believed that the the- themen men below were either behind tl the e pu pump p bulkhead ad or OI in the protective protective protective pro pro- tunnel His first real rea knowledge that an anac ac accident had happened came when Hamel Harnel struggling blindly toward the Surface said that the others had gone gone gone- before him CHILDREN AT PROGRAM AT At t. t the moment when the explosion blasted the tho life lifa from and nd Lancaster two of or chil children hildren hil- hil dr dren n Charles 16 and Dorothy y 12 were were taking part in a Christmas program at the tho Lark schoolhouse Mrs 1 Kate Kat C Galloway Calloway and her youngest son Billie were in the audience at the school The young young wife of Roy Lancaster Was at her home in Midvale l with her 2 months' months old child and had just completed decorating her home preparatory to Christmas The wife nd four children of L. L F. F Hamel clustered l closely around his bed Saturday apparently re reluctant reluctant reluctant re- re to get very far away from the man who miraculously returned from a rendezvous with d death ath the second time a thing lik like that ha has has' h happened to me Hamel said i- i reflectively fl Hamel a miner for the last twenty twenty twenty ty years ars explained that he watched a missed shot blow his par partner ner Hy Hanon into In to eternity several years ago when the two men were blasting blasting blast blast- I ing away away the point paint of a mountain while employed by the state on the I Hatchtown project I IThe Th The men nen had fired a of giant powder shots One of the shots missed and Hamel dug away the tha tamping It was just before the noon hour He du dug as far as possible possible possible pos pos- sible and then filled tilled the hole with water to sot soften n th the tamping Then he primed the hole with dynamite and and joined his partner While the men men nien were eating the dynamite primer exploded but the black powder t moistened by water failed t to detonate When the men had finished their dinner II Hamel tri l walked to the hole kicked aside sq loose loos loos earth east cast up by bytha bythe the tha dynamite primer and walked toward a shovel Hanon following close behind leaned over the hole and reached for the burnt fuse us As Ashe Ashe Ashe he leaned over the black powder exploded the entire force striking I Hanon and twenty feet into the air He lIe was 1 killed in instantly in- in I Funeral services for Percy Pen Pen- PenI I praze raze will b be held Sunday at at 1 1 p. p m. m at the Lark chapel The rhe Rev DeWitt Kitch of ot the Midvale Community Community Com Corn church will wil cond conduct c. c ct the services In addition to His widow and three children Mr Is survived by his brothers Ed Edward ard and Claude Glaude of Lark and his parents par par- Mr and Mrs 1 R. R II n. of Cornwall England Funeral services for fot Roy Lancaster Lancaster Lancaster Lan Lan- caster will be held hela at the Midvale l First war ward chapel at at 21 P p. p m. m with Bishop Henry Beckstead of of- of He is survived by his widow and infant child his' his parents Mr and Mrs 1 Robert JRobert S. S Lancaster Midvale l three brothers Earl George and Clyde of Midvale and two sisters Mrs Ivy May l Butterfield of Midvale 1 and Mrs Pearl Hansen of l. l Magna ag I j Y I I 49 A Wt I r P mi wJ ty t y if f f. f 0 w y X Xz Sc T j I y i ill kLI z Iti j 11 fr 5 E 5 5 7 O 7 t ewT ri WI r I f L il t Some of the vi victims tims of the mine accident at Lark that killed two men mer and injured the tl third ird Upper left Mrs Roy Lancaster whose husband hus J-ius- band center was k killed by a premature explosion at the Bingham Mi Mines l s Right infant daughter of the couple with a neighbor girl Lower left Billie youngest son of Percy who was killed in the accident Lower right L. L F. F Hamel who miraculously esc escaped death death |