The front page of the Evening Herald, Pottsville, March 3, 1977, reporting on the mining disaster at the Porter Tunnel, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, which occurred on March 1, 1977. Articles from that edition of the newspaper follow here:
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STILL NO WORD ON MISSING 7
TOWER CITY, Pennsylvania (UPI) — The only one of eight trapped miners known to be alive in the Kocher Coal Company mine disaster told would-be-rescuers today he doesn’t know the condition of any of his seven co-workers.
John Shutack, a federal mine safety official, said there have been unconfirmed reports that the miner, Richard Adley, heard sounds from other parts of the mine, which could indicate other miners are alive.
But, Shutack added, sensitive seismic listening devices have been unable to pick up any human sound other than those made by Adley.
Shutack said the escape route they are drilling to rescue Adley would also be the main route into the area where the other miners are believed to be trapped.
Adley told rescuers the other men were working below him, but he did not know where they were.
Walter Vincinelli, state commissioner of deep mine safety, said his personal inspection of safety reports on the tunnel where the men were trapped indicated no violations.
“This is an extremely safe mining operation and out inspectors found nothing to cite,” he said. “Since 1968, when the company started operations, it never has had a fatal accident.”
He added the last inspection of the tunnel was made January 18 [1977] and five inspections were made last year.
The rescue team, using air drills and hand-wielded picks, is making slow progress in its effort to reach Adley, entombed in a four to six by eight-foot space.
Shutack said in six to seven hours of digging today, rescue workers had advanced through only about four feet of the 50-foot coal vein leading to the area where Adley is waiting.
He said they should make faster progress now that the initial breakthrough has been accomplished.
State and federal officials still had hopes the other seven miners were safe, but said there was no positive evidence that they were alive.
Millions of gallons of water from an abandoned mine broke into the Kocher mine near here Tuesday, leaving two miners dead, three critically injured and eight missing.
Shutack said communication lines have been installed between rescue workers and Adley.
“He is in good health and is responding very well,” Shutack said. “He has asked for a plug of chewing tobacco, which he got. And he wanted a drink of whiskey, which he didn’t get.”
Shutack said Adley, who is married and has two children, has been told not to move and to wait patiently while rescue workers complete their efforts to open a four-foot diameter escape tunnel.
Shutack said they may not reach Adley until late afternoon.
The families of the trapped miners were briefed on the rescue effort. Most of them are waiting in the privacy of the mine locker room.
Some family members occasionally wander outside to see if anything is happening, but are withdrawn and don’t want to talk to anyone but their closest friends.
Contact was first made with Adley at 4:50 p.m. when rescue teams heard taps and returned the signal. The men immediately started digging and every time they stopped they heard the taps again, said State Mine Official Walter Vincenelli. At 7:45 p.m. the drill broke through and a pipe was rammed into the hole. Adley removed a cap on the pipe and told his rescuers who he was.
He said his battery lamp was on but dim. A new light was conveyed through the pipe along with juice. Adley said he has plenty of air and the temperature is around 45 degrees, warmer than outside.
Adley’s brother-in-law, Steve Kafora, one of the rescuers, said he knew Adley was safe because he was working in an area above the flood water level.
When the news was relayed outside, Adley’s sister, Mrs. Carol Krieser, hugged her mother and cried. “They talked to him. ” The family then went into the wash house near the mine entrance where the families of the other trapped men have been awaiting.
Vincenelli said the mine had been inspected last month month and had a very good safety record. I know of no fatality ever occurring in this mine before this tragedy,” he said.
The dam of water in the old workings may have built up as high as 60 feet before breaking through. The mountain above the Porter Tunnel is dotted with abandoned shafts, all filled with water.
Water was still chest deep in some parts of the mine, and the rescuers also had to contend with cave-ins at spots where the avalanche knocked out timber. It was at such a spot that dynamite teams blasted yesterday afternoon to release a dam of water and reveal the body of Philip Sabatino, 50, of Hegins.
“Mining is the only job you can get around here,” explained Richard Lucas, 24, of Pine Grove, who runs his own independent operation not far away. He said he loves to work and quit school in 7th grade to join his father in producing coal for the family’s bread and butter.
Lucas said the law requires a minimum age of 18 to work in the mines, but he was able to get around it by hiding each time a mine inspector showed up. When the coal is running good, Lucas said, he can make as high as $400 a week.
The miner always has the thoughts of cave-ins in the back of his mind, said Lucas, but he lives with it. The real sufferers are the wives and mothers who worry all the time. “When you get hurt they worry but then things go well for a long spell and they calm down until something like this happens.”
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ROAR OF WATER FILLED YOUNG MINER WITH TERROR
TOWER CITY, Pennsylvania (UPI) — Joe Narcavage said the sound of air rushing through the tunnels of the Kocher Coal Company Mine and the roar of water filled him with terror.
Narcavage, 23, Mt. Carmel, a trained geologist who has worked as a miner for the past year because he could not find a job in his profession, said he was operating a conveyer belt Tuesday when water from an abandoned mine tunnel burst through a wall into the Kocher mine.
“As soon as I saw what was happening, I dived down a 40 foot manway without even touching the ladder rungs on the side, ” he said.
“I turned and looked into the gangway and all I saw was a wall of water com,ing at me.”
Narcavage said the water swept him into a part of the main tunnel where he and Jim McHale, a fellow worker, managed to scramble through the water to the safety of a side passageway.
“It was infinitely frightening,” he said. “I have never been so terrified in my life.”
He said he and McHale saw a fellow miner, Harry Fishburn Jr., 25, being swept away by the water. He said they managed to pull him to safety.
“I’ll tell you this. Jim saved Harry’s life,” Narcavage said.
McHale and Narcavage said they managed to get Fishburn to the rear portion of the mine tunnel where they made their way to the surface by climbing up through a 600-foot airshaft.
“It’s a good place to work and they have always been kind to men,” Narcavage said. “This was a perfectly safe operation. But I’ll tell you one thing. I don’t think I’ll go back in. I’m really scared.
McHale said, “I’m going back in, but I’m going to look for another job.”
The most dangerous occupation in Pennsylvania as still mining according to department of Labor and Industry figures. Although deep mine deaths have been dropping, especially in the anthracite where very few such operations are in existence, the injury rate continues high at 102 per 1,000 workers last year, compared to a rate of 57 in contract construction, the second most dangerous. Deaths in the deep mines on a yearly basis since 1966 were 31, 32, 30, 27, 29, 31, 20, 16, 17, 11 and 18. The major cause of these deaths is roof collapse or machinery related accidents. Flooding, such as occurred at the Porter Tunnel in Tower City this week is not a major factor.
House wives in the Tower City area are joining the Red Cross and Salvation Army as volunteers in feeding the men working day and night in the rescue operations at Porter Tunnel.
The women in church groups, civic clubs or just individuals have prepared and served such items as soup, sandwiches, cakes, donuts and coffee.
Wednesday afternoon, a station wagon pulled into the colliery and Marcia Cooper hauled out enough spaghetti to feed 100 hungry men plus dozens of loaves and hot bread and pastries. She said it was made by the women of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Reinerton.
“We’re getting food from everywhere,” said Southern Schuylkill Red Cross leader Jane Atty of Pottsville. A van from the Berks Red Cross is at the scene to take care of such needs the Salvation Army made hamburgers in the afternoon and ham and eggs for the miners coming off the third shift at 6 a.m.
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HUTCHINSON ASKS HEARINGS ON DISASTER
Rep. William Hutchinson Wednesday asked for hearings on the state level to investigate the Tower City mine disaster as a means of determining future mining safety steps to prevent similar disasters.
in letters to Bernard O’Brien, chairman of the Mines and Energy Management Committee in the House of Representatives, DER Secretary Maurice Goddard and entire House committee, Hutchinson asked the committee to schedule hearings to investigate the present disaster for the purpose of determining what legislation was needed to employ adequate safety practices in anthracite mines.
Hutchinson also asked the committee to determine how the costs of advancing these safety precautions can best be financed.
Said Hutchinson, “I believe the following should be determined : Whether federal safety procedures, which I have always felt were determined on the basis of bituminous mining, are adequate in the anthracite industry.”
“Whether current state statutes are adequate in the anthracite mining safety field, and whether appropriations to DER for mine inspections are adequate in the anthracite field.”
“In these days of high energy cost when people are suffering from the cold and industry is forced to lay off men for lack of fuels,” said Hutchinson, “it is time to consider the needs of the men who labor under the most hazardous conditions to extract one of Pennsylvania’s greatest natural resources, anthracite coal.”
The representative closed by stating that although the investigations he asked for would not restore the men lost to their families at Tower City, it was his duty as a representative to do all in his power as an elected official to see steps were taken to minimize future tragic risks.
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From Newspapers.com.
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