FOUND ALIVE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 245, 22 November 1909, Page 2

FOUND ALIVE.

SEVENTY-EIGHT ENTOMBED MINERS. AFTER HOWS OF RESCUE HAD BEEN ABANDONED. GREAT FIGHT AGAINST DEATH. SCENES AT THE PIT-SHAFT. By Cable.—Prea. Association,—OopyrigM Received November ti, 12.50 a.m. New York, November 21. The rescuers at tue Cherry '"me, Spring YalJey, yeslcriuy demolwlied » I viall ol debris', and ii-uud 78 men alive —O7 in one section and 11 in auoiuer. The news spread liKe lightning, the crowds of women lighting Hie militia in their eagerncas to leach the pits. The rescued included William Cleland, his brother, who was one of the rescuers, bringing him to the surface without recognising him. When the survivors were first reached it was thought they were ail dead, but one raised his hand and the real were found to be breathing. All wer« hurried to the shaft and stimulants administered. Some of the faces were black •with smoke and slightly scorched. Their safety was due to their walling

themselves in. ... Joseph Creaoin!, o leader in the light against death, stated that acting on his English comrade's" advice, the men's food was collected and short rations served. They lived for a part of the time on [mule meat.

The explosion in tdie mine was oauied by a fire in a bundle of hay, which smouldered until it broke into Mame. Of 434 men, mostly Austrian* and Italians, who were below, thirty near the | main shaft escaped. Two hundred retreated to the totawnnoit end* of ue galleries, and it was lewed *»rly m the day that they had perfrhed with the rest. The Hooding of the pit was impossible, nud with a hope ot checkbg the flames the manager closed the moutu of the shaft. Six would-be rescuers were suffocated. Later, two volunteers, w«Mine oxygen helmets, tested the temperature to a depth of 380 feet, and found it nearly normal, indicating that the fire was then extinguished. Further reports show that thirteen out of a search party of fourteen perished owing to Cawley, the engine-driver in charge of the hoisting pant, implicitly obeying the orders only to hoist we cage in response to the regulation code ° f A mrvivor, who was badly burned, stated that when he was searing the shaft, he passed «5 men sitting in s> low along a gallery of the mine, reeignedlv awaiting death. Ho tried to arouse "them to attempt to escape, but thev would not stir. Subsequently a fresh outbreak of fire, with Increased violence, occurred, and the shaft w*» again sealed. Hope of further w*M was abandoned.