Blue Ridge Lime and Stone Company B and C Quarry Rock Slide
Fletcher, Henderson County, North Carolina
February 8, 1933
No. Killed - 7
Seven Killed in Quarry Pit
Daily Times News, Burlington, North Carolina
February 9, 1933
Fletcher, Feb. 9. -- (UP) -- Aided by 40 convicts from the state highway prison camp near Hendersonville, rescue workers today dug into approximately 100,000 tons of rock and limestone in the quarry pit of the Blue Ridge Lime and Stone Company near here to recover the bodies of seven men who were crushed to death late yesterday.
All hope for finding any of the men alive had been completely abandoned this morning.
The side of the horse shoe-shaped pit fell without warning. Some of the pieces of rock were as large as small houses. The pit is 150 feet deep, and 200 yards square. The falling rock filled the pit around 50 feet deep.
The dead:
Jim Moore
Fran Prayton
Styles Webb
B. Collington
H. Shipman
Walter Collins
W. Wooten
Collington and Collins were negroes. Albert Mills, Hendersonville, negro, was the only man to escape. He had gone to the edge of the pit to secure a pick and was out of the way when the fall occurred.
W. T. Gibson, manager of the quarry, attributed the fall to seepage of water, but said the quarry had been examined only recently and was pronounced to be safe.
