Nine men were working underground.  At 1:00 o'clock six had left the working faces in the 6 east entry, the counter entry, and the longwall face above to eat lunch while the machine crew and the shot firer stayed to prepare more coal for loading.  The machine crew cut about 30 feet on the longwall, which did not require blasting, and went down to eat.  The shot firer loaded 1 hole in the lower side of the haulage-entry face and 1 hole in the upper side of the counter entry.  He lit the fuses of both shots and had joined the other men on the entry when the explosion occurred at about 1:24 p.m.  The explosion traveled from the entry face to the slope and up the slope to the surface, gathering force as it progressed.  All stoppings between the intake and return airways were blown out; the concrete overcast at the month of 4 east was destroyed; all roof supports along the main slope and the return airway were blown out, causing extensive caves of roof; 40 feet of the slope portal was blown out, and the wooden air duct and fanhouse were blown apart.

Help was called by the surface men, and officials of State and Federal agencies and other mines arrived to work with volunteer rescue men from other mines.  Ventilation on the slope was restored for about 900 feet after teemporary repairs were made to the fanhouse and air duct.  At that point the concentration of carbon monoxide became so high it was necessary to return to the surface.  Additional repairs were made to the air duct and fanhouse, and time was allowed for the air to clear.

At 9:00 p.m. a party returned to the slope and noted a burning crossbar near the mouth of 6 east.  This was extinguished with water by two men wearing gas masks, after which ventilation was restored to the face of 6 east.  The bodies of the 9 men and a mule were found about 200 feet outby the face.  All were removed by 9:00 a.m. January 18.  The explosion was originated by the shot in the 6 east counter face, which blew out.  Both of the shots were on the solid and were heavily loaded, probably with both 40-percent dynamite and a permissible explosive.  Coal dust was ignited, and the thick deposits of dry coal dust on the slope and haulageways propagated the explosion (fig. 141).

No rock dusting had been done.  The mine was rated gassy, but apparently methane played a minor part in this explosion.  Blasting off the solid when other men than the shot firer were in the mine was a violation of the Oklahoma mining law.  A committee of the State legislature investigated this explosion and reported that there had been gross negligence by the operators.  Seven of the 13 men working at the mine were the partners forming the cooperative company that leased the mine.

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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.