Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 29, 1917
Hastings, Colorado – Women and Children Wait and Weep
From the Kansas Arkansas City Daily Traveler of April 28, 1917:
PATHETIC SCENES AT MINE DISASTER
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Widows and Orphans Weep In The Snow Storm.
—–15 BODIES ARE FOUND
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Broken Air Ducts in Tunnel Cost
119 Lives of Miners.
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Trinidad. Colo., April 28-With men in relays bringing up the workings as they go, every effort was being made early today to reach the 113 men still entombed in the Hastings mine No. 6 of the Victor-American Fuel company near here, where an explosion occurred yesterday morning. Just what caused the disaster is as much of a mystery now as it was then.
Rescue crews, a mine official said, has found “five or six” bodies at 2 o’clock this morning, but had removed none. One hundred and nineteen [120] men were entombed. The rescue crews are unable to make their way down the main mine stope, but by working along the air ways, have “gone a considerable distance into it,” according to a mine company officer.
Believe They Have Perished
The working in which the men are entombed is a running tunnel, opening from the main mine entrance. Above this is an almost level tunnel abandoned some time ago. For several years this has been on fire. Since it was abandoned however and the fire was only smouldering, it was “sealed” off from the rest of the mine with an air tight wall and work continued in the other sections.
Air ducts run into the stope where the men were trapped. Air in unusually large amounts has been pumped into these ever since the fire was discovered, but officials fear the ducts have been broken.
It is snowing in Delagua Canyon, where the mine is located, and miners’ wives and children stand waiting at the mine mouth in the bitter winds.
15 Bodies Are Found.
Hastings, Colo., April 28.-Nine more bodies, making a total of 15, were found by the rescue crew which entered the Hastings mine of the Victor-American Fuel company at midnight. The crews came out shortly after 8 o’clock, this morning. One hundred and nineteen men were entombed in this mine by an explosion yesterday and it is feared all have perished.
As soon as the first rescuers emerged another crew entered the mine bearing stretchers to bring out the bodies. Outside the mine scores of volunteers pressed forward eager to be in the next shift to go inside. Foremen went about among crowds picking out the most experienced men.
“You can’t all go, boys,” the superintendent told them.
Fire is Put Out
The rescue crew reported the fire in the mine was out and that work of clearing fallen rock coal which partially blocked the air passages, was proceeding rapidly.
The first bodies-seven in number-were brought out this afternoon. It has been ascertained definitely that the disaster did not contain the element of fire to any great extent but was an explosion.
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[Emphasis and clipping from Pittsburgh Press of Pennsylvania added.]
SOURCE
Arkansas City Daily Traveler
(Arkansas City, Kansas)
-Apr 28, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/53692870/
IMAGE
Hastings Mine Disaster, Pittsburgh (PA) Press, Apr 28, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/143581460/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 28, 1917
Hastings, Colorado – 120 Coal Miners Trapped
-Feared Dead; Smoke Pouring from Victor-American Mine
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-mine-disaster-at-hastings-colorado-victor-american-fuel-company-mine-120-feared-dead/