A liquid oxygen explosion occurred which practically "vaporized" a truck and four men at the Hanna Coal Company strip mine.

Four men and a crew foreman, Andy Jacobs, 30 of Cadiz were preparing to lower a charge of the liquid oxygen into a hole for blasting when the blasting charge exploded, along with a supply of the explosive on the ground and a complete truckload standing nearby.

After the blast, workers could find practically no wreakage of the 5-ton truck and almost nothing of the bodies of the four men.

The deceased:

• William Stephens, 28
• Harry Deaton, 49
• Clarence "Bud" Hawthorne, 34
• Richard Deloma, 24