SEVEN ESCAPE PIT DEATH

EIGHTEEN KILLED IN BLAST

AMSTERDAM (O.) TRAGEDY COUNTED GREATEST IN STATE MINING HISTORY IN POINT OF VIOLENCE OF THE EXPLOSION.

STEUBENVILLE, O., April 22.-(Special.)-Seven bruised and burned men were rescued alive today from the pit of the Youghlogheny and Ohio Coal Company's mine at Amsterdam where last night a terrific explosion snuffed out the lives of eighteen other miners.

The cause of the explosion has not been determined by the state mine inspectors and mining experts who are conducting the search of the wrecked workings for the bodies of victims.

The mine had been inspected but two days before the explosion by a deputy inspector, who was still at the hotel in the village when the explosion occurred. From the condition of the interior it is said the explosion, in point of force, was the greatest ever recorded in Ohio.

Trainmen Flee from Dynamite.

People thought an earthquake had occurred. A train on the Lake Erie, Alliance & Wheeling Railroad was passing the mine and every window in the train was shattered. The trainmen stopped the train and learning where the explosion occurred, fled from it, as a car of dynamite was attached to the rear of the train.

During the afternoon government experts from the geological laboratory at Pittsburg arrived with oxygen outfits. They explored the mine, but failed to find any more bodies. They report that there were many "falls" and that the missing men's bodies may be under these.

E. O. JONES, the night superintendent, was blown over several cars and the gas and flames passed over him. Doors were knocked down and pit posts hurled in all directions. JONES, when found, was badly burned and bruised. All of the other men who were rescued were burned, but not seriously.

Two men, brothers, were found locked in each others arms. This gives the rescuers the belief that the men were not killed instantly, but that they were suffocated by the afterdamp.

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, IN 23 Apr 1910

Six Bodies Rescued This Morning But No Trace of the Other Twelve Have Been Secured.

Amsterdam, O., April 22.-The bodies of six miners were recovered this morning from the Amsterdam mine of the Youghlegheny and Ohio Coal Co., where eighteen men were entrapped last night by an explosion of gas, followed by fire.

The other twelve have not been rescued.

The night shift of twenty-seven men were working in the mine when the explosion occurred. It was stated that there was gas in the mine and that the men were ordered to take extra precautions. The belief is that a miner's lamp went out and that contrary to orders, struck a match to re-light it. The explosion followed and awoke the whole village and a sheet of fire belched from the hillside.

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