Coal mining at that time period was some of the only work some Americans and European immigrants could find. The working conditions were beyond awful which also led to some of the worst possible types of dangers including cave-ins (when walls and mineshafts have not been properly secured ), fires, chemicals leakage, gas explosions, and electrocution. These men and children were simply just looking for money and put the poor working conditions and life threatening situations behind them.
Around 10:20 am on the morning of December 6, 1907 an enormous rumbling and bomb-similar sound struck the 3,000 people living in the town of Monongah. The community came together as one and created teams of rescue workers as soon as possible to assist the people trapped under these mines. Rescue parties included almost the entire town and a good amount of other people and workers from other small towns were quick onto help with this disaster. Mineshafts numbers 6 and 8 were where the methane gas exploded and it all went downhill from that point on. There were stories told about this disaster that you could hear this explosion “from 8 miles away” which is very impressive in a sense. Immediately as this was occurring, the ventilation fans were tumbling from all the falling rock, timber, debris which created an instant problem for the number of people trapped down in these mines and that was the simple cause of breathing in these deadly gases and chemicals. Poor oxygen levels in these mines was already a major issue of the working conditions, but this explosion made the oxygen situation much worse.
Considering the fact that this chemically infused area was already a horrible place to work, rescue teams and other people assisting the accident could only help the victims for a maximum of 15 minutes at a time. This was due to the poor protection against these harmful chemicals that they did not have. Even the people helping needed medical attention immediately after helping in this incident. Two days after the explosion, the disaster worsened when fires broke out slowing down the process of moving forward. Cleaning up the mess continued for days, but little by little and with help from all around the state of West Virginia, the mess was finally cleaned up 6 days later on the date of December 12th, 1907.
Later on in the investigation in October a Catholic priest and miner activist who lived in the area Everett Francis Briggs stated that the estimate of the people that died in this tragedy was closer to about 500 people. This accurate estimate was brought to the nation’s attention from the works of Davitt McAteer who was the secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration at this time period. Overall, there were many theories about the cause of this tragedy including ideas such as the combinations of dust and gas, or the simple fact of coal dust being brought up and to slow down this process the miners would water it down. The conclusion was finalized by the jury on January 16th, 1908 and they had come to in the investigation of what had truly happened was that according to the post that Maureen K. Fluery had posted about the incident was that the “explosion was caused by a blowout shot or by the igniting and explosion of powder.” Disasters like these occur all the time in the United States by in the world of mining, but this one has gone down in history was the worst ever.
- Luke M. and Troy S.
References :
Fleury, M. (2013, December 2). The Monongah West Virginia Mining Disaster, December 1907. Retrieved from http://suite101.com/a/the-monongah-west-virginia-mining-disaster-december-1907-a285143
The Pump Handle. (2007, December 7). 100 Years Ago Today: Deadliest US Coal Mine Disaster. Retrieved from http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/100-years-ago-today-deadliest-us-coal-mine-disaster
WVgazette.com. (2007). Monongah. Retrieved from http://www.wvgazette.com/News/Monongah
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