Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster

9. And The Explosion Came

9 AND THE EXPLOSION CAME One bright morning, the miner just about to leave, Heard his dear child screaming in all fright. He went to her bed, then she looked up and said: “I have had such a dream, turn on the light.” “Daddy please don’t go down in that hole today, For my dreams do come true some time, you know. Oh don’t leave me daddy, please don’t go away, Something bad sure will happen, do not go.” “Oh I dreamed that the mines were burning out with fire, Every man was fighting for his life. And some had companions and they prayed out loud, ‘Oh God, please protect my darling wife.’” “Daddy please don’t go down in that hole today, For my dreams do come true some time, you know. and the explosion came 115 Oh don’t leave me daddy, please don’t go away, Something bad sure will happen, do not go.” Then her daddy bent down and kissed her dear sweet face, Turned again to travel on his way, But she threw her small arms around her daddy’s neck, She kissed him again, and he heard her say: “Daddy please don’t go down in that hole today, For my dreams do come true some time, you know. Oh don’t leave me daddy, please don’t go away, Something bad sure will happen, do not go.” Then the miner was touched, and said he would not go: “Hush my child, I’m with you, do not cry.” There came an explosion and two-hundred men Were shut in the mines and left to die. “Daddy please don’t go down in that hole today, For my dreams do come true some time, you know. Oh don’t leave me daddy, please don’t go away, Something bad sure will happen, do not go.” —“Explosion in the Fairmount Mines,” Blind Alfred Reed, 19271 About midmorning on December 6, 1907, a load of nineteen mine cars was being pulled by a wire rope up the incline from the mouth of No. 6 mine just short of the knuckle or top of the trestle. As they were pulled slowly toward the highest point, an iron coupling pin snapped and the nineteen 116 chapter nine cars, each carrying more than two tons of coal, plunged 1,300 feet back into the mine portal. J. H. Leonard, the miner in charge of the derailing switch located outside the mine portal, had just stepped onto the threshold of the building where the ventilation fan was housed. Upon hearing the noise, he turned back in time to see the string of cars break loose; he could see the switch twenty-five feet away but knew that he was too far away to be able to reach it in time.2 The cars raced back into the mine and crashed at the mine portal bottom. Along the way, the cars tore out electrical wiring and knocked down timber props, partitions, and curtains. When they hit bottom, a blast of air shot back into the mine entryways. The wreck disrupted the mine ventilation system deep within the mine, caused coal dust in the mine to swirl into the air, and forced methane gas from the voids and high spots. At that instant, from deep within the mine an explosion rumbled, a terrible explosive report rocketing out of both mines, rippling shocks through the earth in every direction. The report was so loud it could be heard eight miles away in Fairmont. A second explosion followed immediately, and at the No. 8 mine entrances explosive forces rocketed out of the mine mouth like blasts from a cannon, the forces shredding everything in their path. The No. 6 mine fan, which was equipped with a pressure gauge and clock to constantly record the pressure, showed the time of the disruption as exactly10 :30 a.m.3 What at first seemed like distant thunder in a few seconds was transformed into a roar like a thousand Niagaras. Like the eruption of a volcano the blazing gas reached the surface and vomited tongues of red flame and clouds of dust through the two slopes.4 At the entrance to No. 8 the forces blasting out of the mine entirely obliterated the large brick power house, tearing the ten-ton, thirty-foot tall fan from and the explosion came 117 its...