Eleven Lives Lost
New York Times, New York
May 23, 1891
Birmingham, Ala., May 22. At the Pratt Mines today an explosion of gas in a shaft where convicts work killed ten negro convicts and one free miner named Tom Moore.
It is believed that the men in some way knocked off a plank from a door which stood across an old chamber and on which the word "gas" was written. The gas rushed out and caught fire from the lamp.
Officers of the company went to the rescue and worked to save the men, but were, themselves, suffocated and narrowly escaped, being dragged out unconscious.
The bodies of the dead have been recovered. Two life convicts worked faithfully with the rescuing party.
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