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Show i Bill HE IN CALIFORNIA IW1PRISDHS 48 Meager Report Reaching Frisco Fail to Show Probable Prob-able Extent of Flames in Amador County Workings ' BERKELEY RESCUE CREW RUSHED OUT N Mine Manager Has Recruit- ed Emergency Force to Battle Fire in Effort to Reach Entombed Miners JACKSON, Cal, Aug. Forty-eight Forty-eight men, according to an official count, were trapped by a fire In the Argonaut gold mine, two mlloa from here, at midnight laat night, and a haif-dosen reeeue crews are attempting attempt-ing to reach them. A United States bureau of mlncc reeeue cor is bsing rushed to the ccenc Little hope ic hold out for the entombed minora. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. t (By A. P.) About fifty men. comprising the entire night force of the Argonaut mine. Jackson, Amador county, arc entombed in the mine as the result of a fire which broke out at midnight mid-night according to a report received by Byron C. Plekard at Berkeley of the atatc bureau of mines from H. Downing, superintendent of the mine. A rescue .crew headed by Plekard and Rodney Hecox left Berkeley for : Jackson early today to effect a rescue res-cue of the men held In the mine , below the 8000-foot mark. H.'M. Wolflln. superintendent of : safety of the California Industrial ! accident commission, was advised early thla morning by telephone from (the Argonaut mine. Jackson, Amador county, that A. Oabarlnl, manager of tha mine, had enllated tha aid of a 1 reeeue crew and gone Into the mine ohaft In nn attempt to smother the , flames. 'Shift Boss Tells Of Making Escape . I BAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 21 (By A. P.) -The San Francisco Call printed t I a statement obtained over the long distance telephone from Clarence I Bradshaw. shift boss at the mine. In I which the number of entombed men ! wes given at forty-five. "There were forty-eight men in the mine and three of uc got out." Bradshaw Brad-shaw told the Call. "The foreman and I tried to go down to the rest of the boys, but It was no use. We did our best, but wa could not get through the flames. "At 1000 feet -It was just about all one could stand. At that level there were flamee shooting Into the abaft. We had no amoke masks, so we bud to tnke a chance holding our nostrils closed with one hand and clamping the other over the mouth. "We made the surface at last. Then the foreman and I tried to K3 down the shaft again. It got worsa and worse. When we reached the 2100-foot 2100-foot level wo were forced to turn back. "The telephone cablee arc broken or burned out and we have no way of communicating with tha ento.nbed men." Rescue Planned Via Air Tunnel JACKSON, Cal. Aug. 21 (By A. P.) Seventy-five men entombed In the famoua Argonaut gold mine below the 8500-foot level by fire which broke out In the main shaft shortly after midnight were still In the mine at 7:50 o'clock thla morning. Ths fire rontlnued burning, snd efforts were A" being made to reach the mine through , ' the abandoned Muldoon shaft, which touches the vein where the men were working. The Muldoon shaft has been used as sn air feed to the mine In recent months, and the . opinion waa expressed ex-pressed by those who visited the scene early today that a reeeue would . be effected through it within a few A hours. The cause of the fire was not known early today, and officials of the mine working aa leaders of a rracue party could not be Interviewed. According to word which reached newspaper offlcee here thla moraine, the fire la in the same place in the mine where a fire broke out about three years ago. ' The previous fire, which burned for several weeks and spread to the Kennedy mine, an adjoining property. Resulted In two damaare suits aggregating aggre-gating 11.2(0,000, which are now In the courts. The fire cult was brought by the Kennedy mine for 1500.000 damagea and the Argonaut mine countered with a suit for $740,000. sssertlng the Kennedy Interests damag-ed the Argonaut Argo-naut shaft by flooding It to prevent the fire from apreading. |
