34 miners were killed following a magazine explosion in the Daly West and Ontario Silver Mines in Park City, Utah. The magazine, located in the Daly West mine, exploded after miner, John Burgy, entered carrying a lit candle. Three of the deceased were rescuers: John McLaughlin; James Smith; and Jack Ballon, all of whom died of asphyxiation while rendering aid and searching for survivors. McLaughlin died after making his second trip into the mine. Several of the dead were in the adjacent Ontario mine. With the exception of Mr. Burgy, all the miners died from asphyxiation.
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Park City Mine Horror
The Durango Democrat, Durango, Colorado
July 17, 1902
Park City, Utah, July 16 -- This city and camp are today plunged in the deepest grief that they have ever experienced. The cause of their sorrow was an accident which occurred last night in the Daily-West and Ontario mines, an accident that brought death to thirty-five men, twenty-nine in the Daly-West and six in the Ontario.
The disaster was the result of an explosion occasioned by John Burgy, a miner, going into the magazines of the Daly-West mine with a lighted candle. The act cost him his life and the lives of many other miners besides. His own body was blown to atoms. Not a fragment has been found. All the other victims are recognizable, their faces being ghastly and easily identified by relatives and friends.
The explosion occurred at 11:20 last night and in a twinkling the most deadly gas was being generated throughout the mines. It crept through every tunnel shaft and incline and in a very short space of time scores of miners found themselves face to face with death. The work of rescuing the imperiled dead was quickly and heroically undertaken.
The men were brought to the surface just as fast as the disabled machinery would permit. The victims had to be brought up the shaft in one compartment cage, one of the compartments having been wrecked by the explosion. Every man who went down with the first rescuing party was overcome by the deadly gas and it was with the utmost difficulty that the machinery was kept in motion.
When it was apparent that all remaining men in the mine were dead and further rescuing work would be futile, the machinery was stopped for the time being and at present nothing is being done to recover the other bodies, nor will anything be done in that direction until some of the gas generated by the explosion has passed out of the mine.
