On this day, the shift was laying track just above third lift and spragging some timber sets. The foreman, with five other men, had ridden up the slope to the surface and within perhaps a minute after these men had passed underneath, a large slab of rock fell from the top and slid down the slope at terrific speed.
It passed a group of four men just above third lift and seriously injured one; it tore through a group of twenty men, scattered from ten to fifty feet above the third lift and crushed 6 to death instantly, and two so badly that they died shortly afterward. Two other men were injured quite seriously and two more received minor hurts.
7 Killed, 16 Hurt in Mine Shaft Collapse
Olean Evening Herald, New York
August 9, 1930
Pottsville, Pa., Aug. 9 -- (AP) -- Caught in a fall of timbers and debris in the Gilberton colliery of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company last night, seven miners were killed and 16 others injured. Three of those who escaped with their lives were injured so severely they may not recover, hospital physicians said today.
Twenty-three men were working in the third level, about 1900 feet below the surface, when the accident occurred, due, investigators believed, to a sudden collapse of timbering. The dead and severely injured were buried under tons of silt, coal and dirt. The others escaped the full force of the avalanche.
The crash of breaking timbers and falling debris warned workers on the surface of the accident, and rescue crews set to work immediately to save their comrades. Thirteen of those taken out required only first aid treatment.
The colliery, 10 miles from Pottsville, has been closed for several months and new rails were being placed in the slope preparatory to resuming operations Monday.
