Woodward No. 3 Shaft Explosion

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Glen Alden Coal Company
Woodward No. 3 Shaft Explosion

Edwardsville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
May 26, 1927
No. Killed - 7

1927 Pennsylvania Annual Report

See also:	Woodward No. 3 Colliery Explosion, Aug. 8, 1916
	Woodward Colliery Explosion, May 26, 1925

Rescuers Work Feverishly to Recover Bodies of Miners
Tyrone Daily Herald, Pennsylvania
May 27, 1927

Wilkes-Barre, Pa., May 27 (U.P.) -- With all hope abandoned for the lives of the five men entombed in the No. 3 Woodward shaft of the Glen Alden Coal Company, imprisoned by a gigantic squeeze yesterday afternoon, officials of the company are today bending every effort to recover the bodies of the victims.  Two men were killed and twenty-five were injured or burned by an explosion of gas which followed the squeeze.

Another explosion at 6 o'clock this morning threw residents of Wilkes-Barre and the West side into panic and rumors spread thick and fast through the valley that hundreds of rescue workers, who had worked all night trying to locate the bodies of the entombed men, were killed by the blast.  However, it was definitely learned a few minutes after the explosion was heard that the rescue workers were just changing shifts and that none of them was in the mine at the time of the explosion.

Two men were injured this morning as a result of this explosion, when the airshaft situated near the mouth of the mine was blown almost to bits.  Pieces of concrete and steel flew through the air and several of the rescue workers who were standing nearby were struck by the flying missiles.  The two men were taken Moses Taylor Hospital, Scranton for treatment.

The destruction of the fan house, closes the last hope for the entombed men, for it was from this fan that precious air was being pumped into them and if they were alive, it would have been possible for them to remain alive for a time at least.  With the fan house out of commission, and the mine filled with gas as the result of the explosions and cave-ins of yesterday and today, officials are far from hopeful that they will be rescued alive.

The toppling of walls of the fan house were dynamited to the ground by company officials as a safety measure and as each detonation was heard in Wilkes-Barre, fresh rumors ran wild that hundreds of men were killed or injured in new gas explosions within the mine.

Major W. W. Inglis, general manager of the Glen Alden Company, arrived here this morning to take charge of the rescue work and to arrange for the clearing of the debris from the interior of the mine.

The two men who were killed in yesterday's explosion are:

Felix Klaysko, 34, miner
Herbert Mensch, 38, bratticeman

The five men who had not been accounted for when officials of the Glen Alden Coal Company left the mines at midnight are:

Henry Carpenter, 40, foreman
William B. Evans, 62, assistant foreman
Angelo Mongi, 37, miner
Shelda Skalley, 28, miner
Konstantz Tilipczak, 38, miner

A bridge of the Wilkes-Barre connecting Railroad directly over the spot where the squeeze occurred, subsided about 18 inches and all traffic on this line was suspended. The branch is used as a freight transfer between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson and much coal and freight passes over it during the day.

Engineers of the road are making an inspection of the bridge today.

Glen Alden Coal CompanyWoodward No. 3 Shaft Explosion

Glen Alden Coal Company
Woodward No. 3 Shaft Explosion