DEATH IN A MINE Sixteen Victims of am Explosion.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 325, 15 December 1888, Page 4

DEATH IN A MINE

Sixteen Victims of am Explosion.

There was an explosion on JN,'o\ ember 7>id in the Kettle Creek Coal Company's mine, thirty miles west of Lockhaven. The explosion occurred in a new drife in which twenty-one peisons were at work. -As soon as possible cifter the explosion tne mine was entered ■ and fifteen dead bodies were cauieel ouU Four other men badly injured were found, one of whom has since died, and the others ;ue not likely to live. The cause of Hie explosion is unknown, bub it is suppoted to have been the striking of a fissure or pocket of pas. In the afternoon the disfiguiecl and naked body of a minei was found lifty feet from the mouth of an air shaft, through which it had been blown. A driver named Fan-ell was entering the drifo when the explosion occurred. He was thrown tow aid the mouth and escaped. His mule was lulled.'. The force of the explosion was .shown in the fact that the bodies weie blowii clear out of the mouth of the diife. Eveiything possible wa3 clone for the injured by nine physicians. The bodies of the dead weie taken charge ot by tin undertaker and prepared for infceiment. It is rumoured that the direct cause ot the explosion was the inexperienced u&e of ctvuamit-e. In conversation with one of the chivers who ebcaped it is learned that an Italian had got 100 sticks of dynamite from the storekeeper in the morning, and had got 100 caps and had returned after fuse, but as there was none in stock it is bupposed that he tried to set it ofl' in some other way, thus causing the explosion. In a blacksmith's shop near the scene of the disaster lays the charred and unrecognisable remains of Augusta Pierson who was blown out through the air shaft hfty feet in the air, and some of his clothes can be seen hanging to the limb of a large tree near by. Next to him is Mike Curreii who was blown 200 feet out of the mouth of the mine and was found dead in a ditch ; still clinging to the head of his shovel, lie leaves a wife and seven small chiidren. Beside him was P. F. Donnelly, who was also blown out of the mouth of the mine Donnelly leaves a wife and four children. John Farrell, a mule-driver, tells this story : " I was pushing a car, and in sticking up tny head, saw a flash, t immediately dropped to the ground, moving as quickly as possibly towards the mouth of the drift, and escaped unhurh My mule and a bwodish minor alongside of the animal were killed instantly. 1 felt but little effect fiom the ex-plosion, and its force must have been all above me. All the timbeit, at the mouth ot the shaft wore carried out 200 feet beyond, the mouth of the drift. "