A local gas and dust explosion at 2:50 a.m. killed 8 men, 4 by burns and violence and 4 by poisonous gas behind a poorly erected barricade in the panel next to that in which the explosion occurred. Fifty others were not affected and left the mine unaided. Flame of the explosion extended about 300 feet from the origin at the face of a panel entry; violence was felt out to the main entries about 1,800 feet and for a short distance into the 2 adjoining entries. The night foreman telephoned to the outside, and a rescue party came to the affected area and advanced by temporarily restoring ventilation until they discovered the bodies of the four men behind the canvas barricade. Rescue teams with oxygen breathing apparatus were called in to explore the entry where the explosion started and bring out the four men killed there. The entry was blocked by falls, so that ventilation could not be restored until a connection was made from another pair of entries approaching it.
They were holed into the explosion area on January 11, and an investigation showed that an accumulation of gas, caused by a door being left open, was ignited by an arc from a storage-battery locomotive. The locomotive, with a loaded car, was found leaving the face on the 7 percent grade with the controller in reverse as a brake. Although the mine had been rockdusted throughout, the amount of rock dust in most of the workings would not have prevented dust from propagating an explosion in so gassy a mine. The affected entry had been rock-dusted 5 days before the explosion, and this limited it to a small area (
Figure 86).
Rescue Crews Recover Last Mine Victim
By the Associated Press
Bradford Era, Pennsylvania
January 7, 1931
Glen Rogers, W. Va., Jan. 6. (AP) -- Rescue crews tonight brought out the body of the last of eight men killed in a explosion today in the Glen Rogers mine of the Raleigh-Wyoming Mining Company.
Seven bodies were recovered during the day but rescue crews were forced to work well into the night to reach the last one. R. M. Lambie, chief of the state department of mines, directing rescue work said the crews were forced to work under "very dangerous" conditions in bringing out the bodies. Slate continued to fall after the last body was recovered and gas was slow in leaving the mine. Lambie said there would be no work in it for several days.
Identification of the men killed in the blast was completed after all the bodies had been brought to the surface. All but one were negroes. The white man was B. H. Smith.
The others killed were:
- Benie Santo
- James Fernando
- Colonel Martin
- John Tuck
- Frank Taylor
- Bruce Davis
- Howard Rainey
Lambie announced that an investigation of the explosion would be started tomorrow by the state department of mines, the U. S. Bureau of Mines and company officials.
The explosion, described as "local," occurred early today while the night shift was still at work. Lambie said that 50 men were in the mine at the time, 42 of whom were able to leave in safety. The mine employs about 350 men on the day and night shifts.
The area affected by the explosion was located at the 650-foot level and was about three-fourths of a mile from the bottom of the shaft. It covered four working places.
