Fire Incidents Just Days Apart at Pocahontas Mines
It was about this week in 1901 the first mining incident happened at the Baby Mine on November 14 and the second incident at West Mine on November 22; both took the lives of seventeen miners. Both mines were owned by Pocahontas and closely connected through their workings.
The first fire at Baby Mine was discovered in the exhaust fan at 4 am on the morning of the 14th. After extinguishing the fire, a considerable amount of heat and smoke came out with air in the fan’s direction. Thus four more fires occurred, burning extensively around the central and fan entries. At 5 am, a small party started examining the fire when a roof fall happened to cause a disturbance of the gases accumulating a fire in the rear, resulting in a slight explosion. The explosion occurred within 50 feet of the party, with no serious injuries. However, smoke and gases passed through Bady Mine’s old section into the West Mine, where miners had gone to work early that morning. The smoke had already overtaken the miners in the West Mine, and nine miners had suffocated before a warning could be sent. These miners’ bodies were recovered over the following two days.
After a week of extinguishing the fire, at noon on November 22, a team of eight entered the West Mine to investigate its current conditions. Barriers were put up to separate air of the Baby Mine from the West Mine, and the West Mine fan turned on around 4:15 am that morning. The team had a direction plan that assured them of fresh air up to 1,500 feet into the mine. However, they went beyond 1,500 feet, where gas was incompletely separated between the Baby and West Mines. The West Mine being at a higher elevation, caused gas from the Baby Mine to draft up into its higher workings. The party walked into the higher workings and suffocated all party members. Another party attempted to recover those of the first party only to discover the foul condition of the West Mine had to wait for more barriers to be set up. The bodies of the eight team members were recovered on November 24th.