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Lehigh Valley Coal Company
Drifton No. 2 Colliery Fall of Persons Disaster

Freeland, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
October 3, 1911
No. Killed - 5

1911 Pennsylvania Annual Report Description  (78 Kb)  PDF Format
Wilkes-Barre Record News Article  (6.0 Mb)  PDF Format

Tons of Slate Fall on Five Workmen
Indiana Evening Gazette, Pennsylvania
October 4, 1911

Freeland, Pa., Oct. 4. At the Drifton Colliery of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, while a gang of seven men were repairing a drag line on the summit of a tall culm bank, the ground beneath their feet gave way.

Five men were sucked into an old abandoned airshaft and buried beneath tons of slate and coal dirt.  Death was instantaneous as the men fell seventy feet to the bottom of the shaft.

The dead are:
  • Angelo Nazardo
  • Joseph Camerano
  • Tony Plum
  • John Plum, his brother
  • Stephen Softle
Source: 1911 Annual Pennsylvania Anthracite Report




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