AMERICAN COAL MINE HORROR. TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE BY MINE EXPLOSION.-150 MINERS KILLED.

Te Aroha News, Volume 1, Issue 45, 12 April 1884, Page 3

AMERICAN COAL MINE HORROR. TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE BY MINE EXPLOSION.-150 MINERS KILLED.

Lynohburg (Va.)» March 13. — Intelligence has been received of a terrible explosion in the coal mines of the South-west Virginia Improvement Company, at Pooahontas, Tazewalt County, in this State. It ooourred at one o'clock this morning, The mines are owned by a joint stock company, composed mostly of Northern capitalists. There were a hundred and fifty men in the mine at the time of the explosion, not one ol whom, it is believed, has escaped. It is thought all who were not killed outright by the terrible force of the . explosion most likelyperishedfromafter-damp. Theoauseof the explosion isnotyetdefinitely ascertained. The entrances to the mine are all full of bad air. The presumption is that one of the miners struck a fissure of gas. Several parties ventured into the mines this morning, but could not long endure the foul air. A number of bodies were dis* covered, horribly maimed, some of them with the heads torn from the trunks, and others with the limbs, all gone, presenting an! appalling speotacle. The^ work of destruction was not confined entirely to the interior of the mines, but houses two or three hundred feet removed from the mines

were damaged, and in several instances entirely demolished. The large ventilator of the Southwest Improvement Company was blown to atoms, and the mines cannot be entered until another is > constructed for the purpose of freeing the atmosphere of the suffocating fumes. This work is not progressing speedily. A large force is engaged outside the mines constructing coffins and perfecting arrangements for the interment of the dead miners, most of whom are foreigners. The latest intelligence is that an exploring party entered the mine a short distance, and brought out six bodies in a frightfully mutilated condition. There is no hope that any will be rescued alive. Petersburg (Va.), March 13.-— The latest intelligence from the explosion at the Pocahontasmineis that there were about 150 killed. The accident was caused by men going too far with their lamps. All the machinery is wrecked. Efforts are being made to recover the bodies, but in consequence of the after-damp very little progress is made. A relief train with physicians and explorers has gone to the scene of the accident. A telegram received here asks that safety lamps be sent to Pocahontas at once, to facilitate the work of recovering the bodies. The scene in the vicinity of the disaster is heartrending in the extreme. It is impossible to get a detailed account of the explosion in the Pocahontas mines, as everything there is in the utmost confusion. The telegraph operator there has been on duty two nights, and is unable to handle the business of the office. Pressing telegrams for particulars receive no response, and another operator was sent to-night. A telegram received at nine o'clock to-night says the whole east mine was shattered by the explosion, and everything in front of the main entrance was demolished. Both the mine engines are safe, but the mine cars are completely wrecked. Fir© is now seen at the mouth of the mine, and no one can enter. The fan-house and fan are total wrecks, and as soon as repaired efforts will be made to fo into the mines. Everything possible is eing done to reach the victims. A party of experienced miners, under charge of Colonel Dodds, from the coalfield mines in Chesterfield County, passed through Lynchburg this evening, and will arrive at Pocahontas at midnight. The men in the mines are mostly Hungarians without families. A number of negroes from this city and the surrounding section were also employed there, and the excitement here is consequently very great. What effect the disaster will have on the operations in the mines can only be conjectured until the full extent of the damage is known. The mines have not long been opened by the Company, but had gotten well under way, and were supplying a large section of the country with coal. The prospect was most encouraging, and a large coaling station for the supply of ocean steamers was in course of construction at Norfolk. Richmond (Va.), March 13. — The mine in which the disaster occurred is known as Flat Top mine, and situated in the northeast portion of Tazewalt County, at the base of the Flat Top Mountains, which divide that section of Virginia from West Virginia. The Company working the mine is known as the South-west Virginia Improvement Company, but the mine is really under control of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. The mines are comparatively new, having been in active operation a little over a year. From five to six hundred hands are employed, and a large quantity of coal is being taken out. Central (Va.), March 14. — The news of the frightful explosion at the Pocahontas coal mine spread rapidly throughout the surrounding section, and to-day crowds have been flocking to the scene of the disaster. The arrival of every train increased the number, and a constant stream of humanity indicates the direction of the mines from the village. The special train which left Central at 8 o'clock last night with the Midlothian -relief and newspaper correspondents ran into a slide 23 miles east of Pocahontas, and the party was belated five hours. The track is still blockaded, making a transfer around the wreck necessary. A visit to the mines this morning presented a spectacle that baffled all attempts at description. From mountain peak to mountain base were evidences of the frightful havoc wrought by the explosion. The hillsides in every direction were strewn with debris blackened with coal dust, blown with terrific force from the entrances to the mines. It was a scene of destruction, of annihilation, and of desolation appalling to the last degree ; and when attention is attracted to the blackened and smoking entrances to the mines, and one reflects upon

THE HORRIBLE FATE of 154 human beings, whose charred and mangled bodies are burned and smouldering in that charnel house, one need not be astonished if the stoutest hearts quail and people shrink from a nearer approach to the awful scene. The very trees on the mountain sides that have withstood the storms of ages were shriven, torn and blasted, and their branches scattered in every conceivable direction. Portions of the wreck were blown clear over the mountain ridge fronting the approaches to the ruins^ and were picked up more than half a mile distant. Even coal-dust was blown over the mountain, and covers the earth on the opposite side to the depth of half an inch, and the blackened and rent overcoat of one of the dead miners was picked up in a gulch nearly half a mile away. All the labourers' shanties in the vicinity were more or less wrecked, and those in line of the mine approaches completely demolished. So terrific was the force of the explosion that the windows in the house of a farmer two miles off were shivered. A few minutes before the explosion a train of coal cars had been backed into one of the entrances to the mine, and the locomotives removed some distance down the track. Many of the cars were hurled dewn the track, and others were wrecked and thrown a great distance up on the mountain side. Heavy axles were

WRUNG AND TWISTED into all sorts of shapes, and the wheels were oracked and broken. The gulches in front of the mines were filled with wreckage. The Focahontas mines embrace an area of twenty-ive miles— that is to say, a person traversing all the chambers and galleries of the mines would have covered that distance. There are five entrances, every one of which seems to have served as an exit for the pent fury within. The entrances are all filled with foul air, which renders the recovery of the dead bodies impossible. Every attempt to enter the mines has been attended with bad results, and in several instances men barely escaped from dying from the overpowering gas. The physicians were kept busy yesterday in ministering to such cases. The farthest entry effected was by a Hungarian whose son was buried in the mines. Nearly crazed by grief, he could not be restrained, and penetrated to a considerable distance, but was eventually forced to retire. He reported seeing a number of bodies in one onamber torn and mangled beyond semblance of recognition. One was that of a young boy aged thirteen, employed as door-boy, who was the pet of the mining camp. The little fellow had just entered the mines when the explosion occurred. Colonel Geo. Dodds, of Midlothian, mines, and other

EXPERIENCED MINING ENGINEERS , visited the mines this morning, and made a. oareful examination. > After consultation it was decided unsafe to use a fan# and orders were immediately issued to have the mines closed and sealed as the only means of suppressing the fire, which is still biirning. The regular coal drifts are not burning, but it is the fine coal at the .bottom of the mines which is afire. The entrances will be tightly sealed so as to smother the fire. In one of the entrances a tube will be inserted to permit the escape of gas. It is impossible to get from the officials of the mining company the amount of damage, which must be enormous. The mines will remain sealed for at least two , weeks, and perhaps longer, and when opened there must be extensive repairs before resumption of work. Most of the miners killed were unmarried. The night force was mainly composed of the youngest and most vigorous men. Hampton, the night foreman, leaves an invalid wife and several helpless children. One of the young men killed was the only son of a widow, whose husband perished in the mines several weeks ago. The physicians sent up from Lynehburg have returned, and only the mining engineers and press representatives remain on the ground to-night.