Tank's Poetry
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united states mine rescue association
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Tank's Poetry |
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See additional Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company disasters Successful Mine Rescues Fire Boss George Dunstan was the only man who could tell anything about the accident. According to Dunstan, he was going from the sixth lift to the fifth. When he got out in the passageway between the two lifts he struck a body of gas. His light ignited and he was thrown violently to the ground. He managed to crawl to the gangway where he was rescued after an undisclosed period. Following a terrible explosion in the Nottingham mine in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, five miners were caught between an ensuing fire and cave-in and trapped for an undisclosed period. About a half hour after the fire broke out two brave rescuers were lowered into the mine to ascertain the circumstances. When they reached the fire, they heard the cries of the trapped miners. Now with a sense of urgency, the rescuers put their hands in front of their faces and rushed through the fire and began dragging the imprisoned men out one by one uninjured. Source document 
Seven Men Perish in the Famous Nottingham Shaft Daily Gazette and Bulletin, Williamsport, Pennsylvania February 3, 1890 The names of the killed are:
Only last week there were three men terribly burned while attempting to open a gangway. The fact that the work was attended with such great danger made it difficult to procure workmen, for nobody wanted to enter the mine. Furthermore, the men got it into their heads that the bosses were incompetent. Most of the latter were new men, coming here from Schuylkill County about four months ago. At that time the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, who operate the mine, suspended many of the old bosses and put in their places the Schuylkill County men. Friday the superintendent of the mine found that it would be necessary to do some propping in the fifth and sixth lifts. He delegated George Dunstan, an expert fire boss, to take charge of the job. The latter secured a dozen expert men, and yesterday morning the party entered the mine. They were at work in the fifth and sixth lifts and were making considerable headway, when all at once there was a terrific explosion, which could be heard all through the mine. Fire Boss Dunstan is the only man left who could tell anything about the accident. He says: I was going from the sixth lift to the fifth. When I got out in the passageway between the two lifts I struck a body of gas. My light ignited and then I was thrown violently to the ground. I managed to crawl to the gangway where I was rescued. Morgan was not long in raising a gang, who at once set about the work of rescue. This will be difficult. The Nottingham shaft, which was the greatest anthracite coal mine in the world, is nearly a total wreck. It had at one time an output of 3,000 tons a day, and netted the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company a half million dollars profit last year. |
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