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Sunday Morning, November 14, 1909 400 Miners Trapped by Fire: all thought Dead - Awful Catastrophe in St. Paul Railroad Mine at Cherry Due to Miner's Lamp - No Escape for Workers. Shaft Sealed to Stop Flame and Men Perish by Smoke and Flame - Heroes Give Lives In Vain to Save Others - Explosion Starts Holocaust. Where it is. Cherry is in Bureau county, 100 miles north and slightly west of Decatur, and about 10 miles north of Spring Valley, the home of John Mitchell. It is on a spur of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, which road owns the mine. It is a short distance from LaSalle and the Illinois River. |
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The crowds gathered around the mine. |
Spring Valley, Ill., Nov. 13 - Between 100 and 400 miners are
reported killed by an explosion of coal dust in a mine of the St. Paul Coal
company here at 3 o'clock this afternoon. At the time of the explosion five
hundred men are known to have been at work in the mine.
FEW WORKERS ESCAPE While scores escaped, it is declared that only a small percentage of those employed emerged. The men employed are mostly foreigners. ESTIMATE MAKES IT 460 City Attorney Hallorin who has just arrived from the scene of the mine explosion at Cherry, says it is estimated that 460 men were killed in the explosion. |
| HEROES GIVE LIVES
At 8 tonight, twelve bodies had been taken out. Six of these were not employees, but heroes who gave their lives in a futile effort to save the imprisoned workers. ESCAPE IMPOSSIBLE Mine Superintendant James Steele declared five hours after the explosion that it was almost impossible that any could escape. The mine has a day shift of 484 men. Fifty left the mine at noon. Twenty-five are known to have escaped after the fire broke out. Others are believed to be dead.
BODIES TAKEN OUT Cherry, Ill. Nov. 13 - Twelve bodies were taken from the mine of the St. Paul Coal company. RESCUERS HEROIC. The bodies were taken out of the shaft while the fire was burning fiercely in the interior. Dense volumes of smoke were pouring from the mouth of the pit. They were put in cages and lifted to the surface by unknown heroes who may be sacrificed themselves in a vain effort to save the entombed miners. 350 IMPRISONED Latest version by escaped miners placed the number of the imprisoned about 350. They said altogether 150 of the 565 in the mine escaped. THE DEAD The twelve dead taken out are the following: John Bundy, superintendent CAN LIVE TWO HOURS Practical miners asserted tonight that none of the imprisoned miners could survive more than two hours. While mine officials say that air can reach the mine throught the open escape shaft, the water poured down the opening in an effort to quench the flames apparently blocked the passage of air. WORST EVER HERE No similar accident has been recorded in Illinois. The greatest loss of life was at Braidwood, in 1879 when eighty perished as a result of the flooding of the mine. In a mine disaster in Japan in 1907, 470 were killed. The maximum loss of life in a mine disaster in America was at Monangah, Va., in 1907, when 398 were killed. |
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Wrecked Air Shaft |
ENTRANCE BOARDED UP
The entrance to the mine was boarded over in an effort to check the flames inside. This checked all hope of the escape of the imprisoned miners. In the three veins of the mine, one 100 feet below the surface, the miners are imprisoned. The only chance for their lives is to retreat to the end of the vein, where enough air may exist to preserve their lives until they are rescued. Fans are stopped, wires are burned, the mine is impenetrable. The only chance is to smother the flames. FLAMES SPREAD QUICKLY The first explosion occurred shortly after 3 o'clock. In some unknown manner the flames were communicated to other sections of the mine and in less than ten minutes all chance of escape seemed shut off. |
| ESCAPE IN CAGE
While smoke and even jets of flame swept up through the entrance, the cage which carried the miners continued to ascend and discend. The first loads were a score of miners who escaped with only burns or bruises received in the rush. DEAD AT TOP The last trip the cage carried the bodies of the superintendent and his assistants. The men were dead when they reached the surface. It is believe they were dead or dying when placed in the cage. None survived to tell the story. |
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WOMEN FRANTIC
The mouth of the shaft is surrounded by hundreds of frantic women, children and men. Many tried to enter, and some were carried away unconscious from smoke fumes after the attempt. For two hours the mine officials tried to devise a means of helping the imprisoned miners and finally decided the only way to check the flames was to board over the entrance. the opening was almost hermetically sealed. The covering will not be removed until tomorrow. HUNDREDS DEAD AT LEAST The most optimistic watchers believe that not less than a hundred are dead. The mine is the only one in Cherry and more than half the male population is employed in it. The men were at work in all three veins extending from the main shaft. |
| ONLY DEAD BODIES
The entrance was sealed in hope of checking the flames. The building above the pit entrance was blown up to permit this. Despite frantic efforts of officials and scores of volunteers, it certainly seems only dead bodies will be taken from the mine. START OF FIRE The fire originated in a pile of hay. The timbers of the mine became ignited and the smoke and flames and gases made escape impossible RESCUER SUFFOCATED Outside heroes contributed five to the list of twelve known dead. Alexander Norberg, a pitman descended in the shaft, carried the bodied of four men into the cage, the only way of escape. As the last was carried in, Norberg fell unconscious across the body. He is dead as a result of suffocation as were all of his companions, when the cage reached the surface. ENTERED WITH HIM Those who entered with him were John Bundy, superintendent, John Flood and Isaac Lewis, merchants of Cherry and Dominic Fonenti SHUT IN A DEATH TRAP At the mouth of the shaft were hundreds of screaming women, weeping children and frantic men. A few survivors were surrounded by groups of women. They were obliged to declare there was no hope for those in the mine. Almost two hundred of these were in the third vein, the only entrance of which is from the second vein, five hundred feet from the main shaft. The fire had burned the timbers in the shaft, the air fan collapsed and tumbled downward, and the flames then swept to the mouth of the pit, so the mouth of the pit was sealed. RETREAT TO THE ENDS That the prisoners retreated to furthermost ends of the veins was the statement of the miners who escaped. The latter included only those near the main shaft. CAUSED BY CARELESS MINER They declared a careless miner had thrown a torch on a bundle of hay used to feed the mules. Afterward two miners threw the burning mass on a cart and started toward the main shaft 150 feet away. Before it was reached, a small explosion occurred. In a few moments the entrance to the vein from the shaft was filled with smoke and flames. Those nearest the cages were holsted out, but after four trips the cages ceased moving. |
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TWO THING AFRAID
Superintendent Bundy in the meantime leaped into the cage, calling Nerburg and two miners. The latter were afraid, and from a small group of residents came volunteers eager to assist in the rescue. RESCUERS UNCONSCIOUS Flood, Lewis, Fonenti, and Rubinski descended. The next trip upward carried the bodies of six members. Then the cage ascended, bearing the unconscious bodies of three of the rescuers. Again it was lowered and the last of the six dead bodies were brought up. |
| SHAFT SEALED
The fan had collapsed and the fire was flaming out of the shaft. Superintendent Steele, as escape through the shaft was blocked, sealed the shaft entrance as a last resort. Timbers soaked with water were placed across the entrance and sand was piled over them. |
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Sunday's Crowd, November 14, 1909
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TERRIBLE GRIEF
Wild scenes of sorrow followed. Almost every person in the town's population of five thousand gathered about the mine. The shrieks of women were heard throughout the town. Every physician, many from nearby towns, are caring for histerical relatives of those imprisoned. The mine, which is the only one here, employed almost a thousand men. PROPERTY OF THE RAILROAD This is the property of the St. Paul railroad and is on a spur of its road fifteen miles from Spring Valley. NUMBER IN DISPUTE At midnight the number of men in the mine is in dispute. Those familiar with the mine, not connected with the management, declared the force numbered 565. Officials place it at a much lower figure and added that 185 escaped. NO SURVIVORS That none survived, or at least were near the entrance, was indicated an iron bucket large enough to hold several men was lowered at 11 o'clock down the shaft. It was brought up empty. |
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SAYS 250 ESCAPED
Chicago, Nov. 13 - Assistant General Superintendent Cooper, of the
St. Paul railroad, which uses the output of the Cherry mine, asserted that
more than 200 miners escaped before the mine was sealed, and the number
imprisoned is not more than 225. He added:
TORCH EXPLODES Bloomington, Nov. 13 - A telephone message from Cherry states the fire in the mine is due to the explosion of a torch which scattered blazing oil over the surroundings and communicated to the stable, spreading the flames rapidly. The escape shaft was cut off by fire. Into this the firemen turned a hose, pouring a flood of water downward. PASSED EXAMINATION Neurburg had just returned from Springfield, where he had taken examination before state mine inspectors, and ranked with the best posted men in the state.
OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION Springfield, Nov. 13 - Secretary Ross of the state labor bureau has begun an official investigation of the Cherry disaster. |
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Cherry, Nov. 13 - "Don't go down again", said Herman, brother of Isaac Lewis, local liveryman and one of the heroic volunteer rescuers, when he saw the dead and dying brought from the blazing mine. "It is all right", Lewis replied. "I will try once more." DEAD THEN He did, and when the cage was again lifted he was dead, his clothing burned from his body. The third time the cage was lowered, but never rose again. Fifty mules were destroyed. NOT OVER 250 Officials of the company declared there could not have been more than 250 men below when the fire originated. Some miners declare four hundred or more never reached the surface. Smoke is pouring from the mine at midnight. Flames burnt from the shafts within a few minutes after the discovery of the fire. Wives and sweethearts screamed, appealed to firemen and officials to rescue their loved ones. The foreman poured water into the burning pit until the supply was nearly exhausted. OFFICIALS RUSHED Springfield, Nov. 13 - Deneen ordered the state mine inspectors and the newly appointed mining commissioners to Cherry immediately to investigate the disaster. |
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