Ducktown, TN Copper Mine Explosion, Jan 1943

8 COPPER MINERS DIE IN EXPLOSION.

2 SCORE MORE ENDANGERED WHEN DUST BLAST CUTS OFF AIR FAN.

Ducktown, Tenn., Jan. 5. -- (AP) -- Eight men were killed and the lives of more than two score others endangered here today in a mid-afternoon explosion at the Tennessee Copper company mine.
General Supt. Lamar Weaver of the mine said a routine detonation of a normal amount of dynamite, set off at 3 p.m., caused a dust explosion which in turn interrupted the working of an air fan.
Eight bodies had been recovered within a few hours after the explosion, Weaver said, and 14 other miners, suffering from varying degrees of asphyxiation, were under treatment at Copperhill and Ducktown hospitals. The remainder of the shift of 54 men in the tenth level, where the explosion occurred, escaped serious injury, he said, and there was no indication of further casualties.
Weaver said rescue squads were clearing the tenth level within an hour after the explosion. The air fan was restored to use to aid the squads in their work.
An unofficial list of dead was:
HOMER PAYNE.
SIMON DUNN.
THOMAS FRITTS.
L. G. SPURLING.
W. D. DEAL.
ELMER PLESS.
RALPH HANCOCK.
C. B. HELTON.
All the victims lived in the copper basin which embraces Ducktown, Copperhill and North Fannin County in Georgia.

Charlestown Gazette West Virginia 1943-01-06
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!