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Show MINERS ARE ENTOMBED Colorado Mine on Fire and Men Working Like Mad to Escape Denver. Colo.. Dec. 15. .Twelve men are entombed in shaft No. 2 of the Leyden Coal company at Leyden. Colo.. 14 miles west of Dener. The workings are said to lo on fire, and It is feared all are dead. The fire started about 9 o'clock last ; night, the result of an explosion, and the timbering of1 the shaft was ablaze In a moment, cutting off escape in that way. Shaft No. 1 Is separated from shaft No. 2 by a narrow wall. rescue party under the direction of Samuel Perry, president of the Leyden Coal company is endeavoring to break down the wall, and the 12 imprisoned men could be heard working madly in their efforts to gain freedom, and at the same time efforts were made to gain an entrance to the entombed men through shaft No. 1. Efforts to force an entrance to shaft No. 2 were later abandoned, as it was j found that a draft would soon put the, ! lire beyond control. AH energy Is bo- Ing centered in an effort to extin-i extin-i puish the file in shaft No. 2, but at j 10 -nil this inoming the fire was still burning fiercely. The government mine rescue car left Trinidad this morning for Leyden. No. 2 shaft, through which the men must come if rescued, Is on fire and apparently the mino la full of gus, as a rabbit, placed in a box, was lowered low-ered six feet in tho shaft for 20 minutes min-utes and brought out dead. The air compressor, tipple and house of the mine have been burned, making it Impossible to clear tho , mine of gas. The fire started from an electric Sj spark from a motor. This caused an explosion and Iho timbering of the shaft -wan soon blazing fiercely. There ' has been a strlko on at tbo mine for some timo and the entombed men were engaged In cleaning up the property. prop-erty. Mine officials say they have one chance in escape. If the men, finding their rescue cut off, turned north to the workings, they may bo alive, but If they turned south, it is feared that all are dead." |