Two Workers Lose Lives in Coal Mine in Powder Explosion
Billings Gazette, Billings, Montana
September 28, 1929
Poteau, Okla., Sept. 27. -- (AP) -- At least two miners were killed by an explosion in the No. 7 mine of the Covington Coal Company, 12 miles north of Poteau Friday, and six others who were in the workings were threatened with asphyxiation by "afterdamp."
The dead, whose bodies were recovered were Jeff Shelton and William Cares. They were killed outright by the blast, Cares' body being hurled 200 feet from the mouth of the mine.
Miners who were summoned to the mine for relief work expressed the belief that the explosion was occasioned by the detonation of dynamite at the end of the day's work. It was followed by the accumulation of lethal gas which caused the death of the two men and was of much density as to prevent an immediate search of the mine for the six others.
