Tank's Poetry
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united states mine rescue association
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Tank's Poetry |
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From the Google News Archives:  (news links open in a separate window)
Rescuer Deaths , 38, mine laborer, and William J. Kelly, Sr. , 48, died attempting to save William T. O'Brien, 52, mine fireboss, from suffocation, Girardville, Pennsylvania, May 4, 1949.
Ey, Joseph P. Wowak , and William J. Kelly were members of a crew of five at work in a mine in which fire started in a slope between the second and third levels. After attempting to discover the source of smoke in the main tunnel of the second level, which was 490 feet below the surface, the crew and a hoist engineer and another man entered a haulage-way, which was separated from the tunnel by a brattice and was clear of smoke, and walked to the top of another slope leading down to the third level.
They learned from a crew at the foot of the slope that they had seen no sign of fire on that level and that they had left O'Brien at a haulage-way on the two and a half level. At Kelly's suggestion that they find O'Brien and warn him of the fire, Ey and Wowak entered a man-car with Kelly and were lowered to the third level, which was 800 feet below the surface. They again inquired of the other crew about O'Brien's location. The other crew then was hoisted in the car to the second level, and they and four others including the engineer, ran to the main tunnel and through dense smoke to the main shaft, where they were hoisted to the surface. All suffered from nausea. A rescue crew, protected by smoke-helmets, descended 200 in the shaft but was hauled up because of the dense smoke. Almost two days later, after smoke had been cleared from the mine, a rescue crew descended and found the bodies of O'Brien, Ey, Kelly, and Wowak close together in a haulage-way of the second level near the top of the slope. All were dead. Messer's Ey, Wowak, and Kelly were awarded the Carnegie Hero Award for their bravery. |
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