Port Carbon, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
May 6, 1926
No. Killed - 5
Description: Gas ignited when a detonator was accidentally exploded by contact with a dry-cell battery or the gas was ignited by a match in turn setting off the dynamite.
Five Miners are Killed and Five Others Injured in Explosion
By Associated Press
Titusville Herald, Pennsylvania
May 7, 1926
Pottsville, May 6. -- Five men were killed and five injured by an explosion of gas in the South Penn colliery late today. Two of the injured were seriously hurt.
Those who lost their lives were:
William Coulson and his son, Albert
Edward Green
Bruno Trycko
Albert Brimbe
First reports were that a number of workers had been entombed, and the head of the shaft was soon surrounded by weeping women and children. Colliery officials, however, set the rumors at rest by issuing a statement that all had been accounted for. Rescue parties reached the dead and injured without difficulty.
The explosion was said to have been caused by the discharge of dynamite in a gas-laden atmosphere.
All five of the injured men were badly burned. They were:
Michael Petosky, Port Carbon
Charles Lookingville, Pottsville
Edward Scholoto, Minersville
Charles Wolf, Williamstown
Conrad Chivinsky, Minersville
Five other men working in the section of the mine where the explosion occurred escaped.
