Tank's Poetry
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united states mine rescue association
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Tank's Poetry |
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Officials of the company estimated that at least 14 others were trapped about three miles from the opening and their fate has not yet been learned, but many are feared to be dead. 14 of the 20 burned and injured were brought to the Indiana Hospital. The others were treated at the mine mouth by a corps of physicians and nurses. First aid crews from the McIntyre community have entered the mine and similar crews have been summoned from Lucerne and Ernest. The First Aid crew of the Indiana Fire Department is also on the scene. Ambulances from the Robinson, Streams, Bell and Leydic Funeral Homes were rushed to McIntyre following word of the accident. The explosion occurred at 7 right heading, three north. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined. Andy Toth, a motorman, was a mile away when the explosion occurred and was almost blown off his feet by the blast of air. The fourteen burned and injured and workers in other parts of the mine had to walk out in total darkness. R. E. Penfield, chief clerk of the production department, said the men in the mine had not been determined but none was reported dead. Penfield said that blast shook loose very little debris and that none of the passageways was blocked. He added: The fans are working and air is flowing through the mine.¯ The U. S. Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh dispatched a rescue truck and seven men to the scene. The blast occurred near the area where a cave-in trapped five men last New Year's Eve. They were rescued 18 hours later after they had written farewell notes to their families. Source document  See Successful Mine Rescues.
Fourteen Hospitalized Indiana Evening Gazette, Pennsylvania June 30, 1941
McIntyre Mine Death Toll Now 7 Indiana Evening Gazette, Pennsylvania July 1, 1941 Sixteen others who were working in the heading of the Kent No. 2 mine of the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company when it was rocked by an explosion yesterday morning are still hospitalized, while eighteen who were removed from the shaft were permitted to return to their homes after minor treatment. George Clipper, 26, of Clune, who is suffering from severe burns of the hands and face, is the only one who remains in a serious condition today. Rescue crews worked feverishly for nearly eight hours yesterday to remove the 41 men trapped in the large heading. The explosion, which shook the mine at 9:15 (EDT) is believed to have been caused by gas, but mine inspectors and county authorities were pressing an investigation today to determine the cause of the blast. The dead are:
Other hospital patients are:
The six men whose bodies were removed yesterday were reported to have been working in two rooms which were hit by the full force of the blast. Rescuers said only one body showed any signs of being hurled in the air by the explosion. Three of the bodies were very seriously burned, but they were all identifiable by relatives. Blackdamp, the inevitable aftermath of an explosion, may have caused the death of several of the men, but Dr. Edward L. Fleming, Indiana county coroner, indicated today that he will await the findings of the mine inspectors and the U. S. Bureau of Mines officials before scheduling an inquest. Friends and relatives gathered near the tipple shortly after the blast to watch the return of the men, while ambulances and rescue crews from surrounding communities arrived quickly on the scene. A group of volunteer women workers from McIntyre and the Indiana Red Cross Chapter served coffee and refreshments to the returning miners and rescue workers throughout the afternoon. Over twenty men had been removed from the shaft, which was three miles from the entrance, before the first body was found late in the afternoon. In an effort to minimize hysteria in the anxious crowd waiting near the man-load officials in charge of the rescue work ordered the bodies to be removed at the drift-mouth a mile away and transferred from there to the ambulances which brought them to local morgues. The crews has little difficulty in finding the location of the explosion, but the site of the heading, which is known as Section 3, North 7 right, and the blackdamp slowed down the rescue work. No cave-ins resulted from the blast, but the explosion blew out the brattices, the barriers which block off developed entries and the main group of rescue workers were forced to reconstruct them as they progressed. Smaller squads of experienced mine rescue workers, equipped with gasmasks, penetrated the dead air¯ section of the heading to bring out the bodies of the six victims. Company officials said three of those who were found dead in the mine were employed as conveyor movers and were probably shoveling coal on the conveyor when the blast let go. Miners do not load cars in the rooms in that mine, but at the main headings after the coal has been conveyed over 1,000 feet. In addition to the large rescue organization of the R. & P. from its mines in Aultman, Coal Run, Ernest, Iselin and Yatesboro, a truck and corps of engineers, headed by J. J. Forbes, supervising engineer, was rushed to the scene from Pittsburgh. Two crews were sent by the Industrial Collieries Corporation from Johnstown, while others arrived from the Pennsylvania Electric Company at Seward, the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Company at Barnesboro and Hastings, and the Northwest Mining Exchange at Seward. The first aid truck of the Indiana Volunteer Fire Department was also on the scene. A battery of eight State Motor Policemen, the Indiana County Sheriff and his deputies together with about a dozen officers from Indiana County boroughs kept order and held the large crowds back while the rescue work was going on. The 18 men in the heading who were uninjured by the blast or sent to their homes after receiving minor treatment were listed by the company as: Steve Cyga, Peter Fedorick, Theodore Fedorick, Frank Fulton, John Gentile, Charles Hilliard, Francis Kato, Daryl Laurre, Joe Pavolka, Salvatore Virone, Joe Kovalic, Joe Marazik, Joe Louisa, Ren Douisa, Charles Lucas, Walter Swalga, Dave Getty, and Todd Getty. |
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