West
Leisenring, Pennsylvania Connellsville Coal &
Iron Company Explosion
February 21, 1884
THE TERROR OF THE PIT
Fire-Damp and After-Damp Gather Their Victims
Particulars of the Awful Pit Explosion at
Leisenring, Pa- Nineteen Miners Hurried into
Eternity
Uniontown, PA, Feb.21- The little mining
village of West Leisenring, four miles north of
here, was the scene of the most terrific
explosion ever known in the coke region. The
Connellsville Coal & Iron company, of which
Judge Leisenring,
of Mauch Chunk, is president, have 300 coke
ovens here, which have been in operation about a
year. The works give employment to about one
hundred men, and quite a little town has sprung
up named after the president of the company. The
coal for the ovens is obtained by means of a
shaft, which reaches the coal at a distance of
400 feet from the surface.
A part of the force who had worked all night
left the mines a little after 3 o'clock and
seventy others took their places, making the
usual morning shift. About 6:30 o'clock, while
the men were digging, suddenly, without warning,
there occurred an explosion that convulsed the
mine in every apartment and threw the men into
the utmost consternation. The scene of the
explosion was in one of the apartments fully 800
feet distant from the bottom of the shaft, and
therefore about 1,200 feet from the surface
opening; yet the report was heard on the outside
for a considerable distance and caused such a
jar that the top of a derrick 100 feet high was
knocked off. Two mules were standing at the
bottom of the shaft 800 feet from the explosion,
and the rush of air blew one of them through a
wooden cage, shattering it to pieces. The other
mule died of suffocation.
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN 22 Feb 1884
Transcribed by Regina
Moore. Thank you, Regina!
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