Bond Valley Coal Company Bond Valley Mine Explosion
Haileyville, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma
January 17, 1945
No. Killed – 9
Nine Men Killed in Mine Explosion Near Haileyville
Ada Evening News, Oklahoma
January 18, 1945
Haileyville, Okla., Jan. 18 -- (AP) -- Rescue crews sent word early this morning that they had reached the bodies of nine men killed in a gas explosion yesterday afternoon at a mine three miles southwest of here.
The crews had been working since the explosion occurred with little hope that they would find the men alive.
The nine men had been identified by highway patrol Sgt. W. R. Livingston as:
Earl Grizzi
Riley Smith
Henry B. Batson
Earnest Smith
John Boluski
Stanley Krubuski
Mack Williams
Roy Tucker
T. B. Tucker
J. B. Puterbaugh, president of the McAlester Fuel Company, which sent rescue crews to the scene, said the explosion was believed to have been caused by a breakthrough into a gas-filled abandoned mine shaft nearby. The mine in which the explosion occurred was operated by the Bond Valley Coal Company, a co-operative, Puterbaugh said. It was located at the Craig Mining camp.
Heavy timbers blew more than 100 feet from the mouth of the mine when the explosion occurred, though the miners were working 2,600 feet inside the mouth.
Rescue work was slow and hazardous because pilings inside the mine were blown loose and had to be replaced before the crews could go ahead with their work. At one point they were driven back by mine damp.
