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Show Steel Mill Worker Plunges To Death in Fiery Slag Pile ; JOHNSTOWN, PA. John Smat- ' lak, 27, plunged to a fiery death from the ironlike crust of a 100-foot- 1 high slag pile in what a Bethlehem 1 Steel company official described as 1 "the most horrible accident" in the 1 company's history. W. H. Slick, a slag train engineer, who was only 18 feet away, sait1 Smatlak "simply threw up hit. hands and disappeared." "One instant he was there and the next he was gone," Slick said. Smatlak's bride of less than a year, who is to become a mother soon, was prostrated at word of her war veteran husband's death. When the slag pile is cool enough, company officials said, they will use a power shovel in an effort to find Smatlak's remains. Slag piles, containing refuse from steel mills are usually used as the roadbed of a slag train. The interior burns from spontaneous combustion, combus-tion, often for years. c Bethlehem officials said they had t never heard of a similar accident. Smatlak disappeared into a four- f foot hole ripped across the top o' j the crust in an almost unprece f dented coUapse. The crust was so c solid a railroad track had been built f on it. B |