Eight Men Die In Coal Mine Gas Explosion

Four Caught in Pits at Time of Disaster Saved; Two, Badly Burned, Are in Very Critical Condition

Rescue Parties Work Feverishly

United States Bureau of Mines Car Summoned to Give Aid; Property Near McCurtain, Oklahoma

McCurtain, Okla., Oct. 20 (By A.P.)-Eight men were killed and four were badly injured in an explosion of gas in the Progressive Coal Company’s mine a mile and a half north of McCurtain this morning.

The Dead:
BILL TAYLOR
_____ IRVING
BURLE STROUSE
CLARENCE GREENWALD
WALTER BRASHER
BOB EDWARDS
JOHN SANDERS
EVERETT SEATTON

The Injured:
Bob Wallace
Roy Caldwell
Claude Everett
Joe Coppenger

The injured were badly burned. Physicians say they are in a serious condition.

Thirteen were entombed in the pits of the mine operated by the Progressive Mining Company and owned by the Blue Ridge Mining company when the explosion occurred this morning. Rescue parties labored two hours after the explosion occurred to reach the seven who were held prisoner in the mine.

The United States bureau of mines rescue was summoned from McAlester.

Company officials say they believe gas caused the explosion. The mine is about a mile and a half south of here.

Of the four men taken from the mine, Bob Wallace and Claude Everett, physicians say, are seriously injured.

The bodies of two of the dead and also the four rescued men were brought to the surface at 10 o’clock, two hours after the explosion.

The explosion did not ignite the mine, in the opinion of rescue workers who were forced to come to the surface on account of the bad air. The braddish work was demolished by the blast , rendering it impossible to send fresh air into the mine until new braddishes are created.

The Blue Ridge Coal company took over the properties of the San Bois Coal Company, which passed out of existence in 1913, when an explosion in one of the mines killed seventy-two men.

Salt Lake Telegram, Salt Lake City, UT 20 Oct 1922