Tank's Poetry
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united states mine rescue association
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Tank's Poetry |
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One mile worker, Jesus Nunez Price, who was some 2,400 feet from the explosion, was thrown 200 feet but walked to the mine entrance and was taken to Carbon Hospital. Price suffering from bruises, lacerations and shock. Nine other miners escaped without injury in the blast which occurred at 11:50 a.m. in the Carbon Fuel Company mine, 3 miles up Hardscrabble Canyon west of the town of Martin. Martin is one mile north of Helper. Casper A. Nelson, state industrial commissioner, who flew to the scene Monday afternoon said he believed the explosion, about one and a quarter miles inside the mine, was caused by methane gas mixed with coal dust. The entrance slope of the mine runs 2,700 feet into the earth and then divides into an east and a west shaft. The west shaft, where the victims were working runs 2,500 feet westerly and then 1,400 feet northerly. The victim's bodies were located in mid-afternoon by a rescue team from Kaiser Steel Company's mines led by John Peperdakis, Kaiser general manager for operations. James Diamanti, president of Carbon Fuel Company, who went in the mine after the blast, said there had been an explosion "of tremendous force" but no cave-in. There has been no gas problem in the operations for many months, he said. All of the dead were in a 1,000-foot-square area, the bodies singed but not burned. Four were lying beside a mechanical mining device, three were beside an ore car, one was between the ore car and the mining machine and the ninth was at the entrance of the tunnel. "It appears that the men dropped right where they were," said Mr. Diamanti, as tears streaked down his coal-blackened face. Rescue teams from Kaiser, Geneva Steel Co. mines and Independent Coal Co. were forced to wear oxygen masks because of carbon monoxide gas which poured through the tunnels after the blast. Clair Self, Kaiser safety engineer, one of the first into the explosion site, said it was his opinion that it was caused by gas. There was no "roof fall" nor any fire when it occurred. The bodies of the dead miners were lashed in ore cars after the air was cleared enough by the ventilation system for rescue teams to work. The first was brought to the surface at 6:10 p.m. The explosion came without apparent warning in the westerly shaft of two in the mine. One rescue worker said, "I don't think they even knew what hit them." Marion Gonzales, a train operator working in the easterly shaft, said he did not hear the blast. "All of a sudden there was a tremendous cloud of smoke. I felt a big rush of air, but I did not here any explosion." Carbon County Sheriff Albert Passic and Chief Deputy Charles Senken, Jr., said the explosion was heard at the entrance of the mine, however. Heavy, white smoke billowed out of the mouth of the shaft about half an hour after the blast. Rescue workers hastily rigged up lines to feed fresh air into the explosion area as some 25 men prepared to go into the mine which was blocked by debris and heavy smoke.
"The concussion popped out ears but we heard no blast. We figured it was a 'bounce' (cave-in) and started to probe for it toward the west shaft," he said. "When we were about half-way over, I contacted Jim (his brother), who told me what had happened, and then we made sure all the power in the mine was off," said the company official, one of the first to go into the explosion area. The company president and another brother, Steve, voiced high praise for Dr. Oliver Phelps, who went into the mine with the first rescue team. The company officials also commended Helper police, the Carbon County Sheriff's office, the State Highway Patrol and the rescue workers who came to the explosion scene. Traffic was stopped at U-56 about two miles below the mine except for rescue teams and newsmen while friends and relatives of the miners waited around a fire near the road. Chris Diamanti said the miners were not using powder or blasting caps in the operations Monday. Sheriff Passic said it was believed that the temperature at the time of the blast reached 1,800 degrees. The Carbon Fuel Co. has been in business since 1934 and the mine where the explosion took place has been in operation for nine years. The explosion Monday was the first in the state after the Aug. 27 blast at the Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. potash mine being built near Moab which killed 18 miners. Seven others were brought to the surface in a four-day rescue operation. The last coal mine blast in the Helper area was at Sunnyside seven years ago when one man was killed and three others were rescued after 44 hours. |
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