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Nazareth Portland Cement Company
Nazareth Limestone Quarry Explosives Detonation

Nazareth, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
April 13, 1910
No. Killed - 11

USBM Final Investigation Report  (2.4 Mb)  PDF Format

From the Google News Archives:  External Link
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Successful Rescue

A large force of men made every effort to reach the victims, but it was some time before the first man was found.  He was still breathing, but unconscious and that he might die at any moment.  All the victims were Hungarians and Italians and were known about the quarry only by numbers.  See note below.


11 Killed In Explosion
The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland
April 14, 1910

Easton, Pa., April 13. -- By a premature explosion in the stone quarry of the Nazareth Portland Cement Company, between this city and Nazareth today, 11 men were buried under 5,000 tons of rock and killed, and one other man injured so seriously that he cannot recover.

All the victims are Hungarians and Italians and were known about the quarry only by numbers.

The quarry force was preparing to put off a blast in four holes, each 24 feet deep, and had filled the holes with hundreds of pounds of dynamite when, from some unascertained cause, the charges were exploded.  The men were scattered in all directions, some being sent many feet into the air.  The entire side of the mountain of rock was torn loose and the laborers were covered with earth and stone.  A large force of men made every effort to reach the victims, but it was some time before the first man was found.  He was still breathing, but unconscious and is likely to die at any moment.

Every man available about the works and all laborers who could be found in Nazareth, in a mile or more from the scene of the accident, were put to work clearing away the fallen rock, but the farther they dug toward the heart of the quarry the larger became the rocks.  Some boulders were encountered that had to be blasted before they could be moved.

All hope of saving any of the men was abandoned, but the officers of the cement company will continue the search for bodies until all have been recovered.  It is expected that several days may elapse before all the victims are reached.

Wives and children of the unfortunate men who gathered around the quarry wept and moaned, while others became enraged and threatened vengeance on the officers and foremen of the company.  It was some time before they could be quieted and only then after fellow-countrymen of the victims had been brought from the mills of the cement company to explain the situation and assure the women that the fault was not with the foremen, and that the bodies of the men would be recovered as quickly as possible.

Note:  The official death toll in this disaster was 11 as stated in the first paragraph of the news article above.  This accident is included as a successful rescue since the first man found by the rescuers was alive when he was found.  From this article, however, it is not clear whether or not he survived.




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