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Alaska-Mexican Mine
Alaska-Mexican Mine Treadwell, Alaska March 2, 1910 - 37 Killed (5) At 11:30
p.m. the powder magazine on the 1,100-foot level of the Mexican mine exploded,
killing 37 men and injuring 9. The magazine, containing a day's supply of 20 to
30 boxes, was a chamber cut in the rock and closed in front by boards; it was 25
to 50 feet from the shaft and separated from it by a pillar. Light was furnished
by a 16-candlepower lamp a short distance inside the door. There was no wiring
over the stored powder. The explosives had been thawed before delivery,
therefore, no heat for thawing was introduced into the mine. The explosion
occurred just as the night shift work-men were waiting to go to the surface to
eat. The men on the 990-foot station reported two explosions. The first
extinguished their candles, but was of no great violence. As the men relit their
candles before proceeding to another shaft, a second explosion of greater violence knocked them over,
seriously injuring one and slightly injuring three. Men loading the skips only 45 feet below the 1, 100-foot level,
were uninjured, as were those on the 1,200-foot and 1,300-foot stations. The posts on the 1,100-foot station
were knocked out and, with the lagging and other timbers, formed a mass of debris that closed the shaft. From
the debris, 22 bodies were recovered; 5 injured also were rescued. The doors across the skip compartments
were closed, as ore was being hoisted from the level; one body was found on these doors. The man-cage
compartment was open, and eight bodies were recovered from below in this compartment. The light board shed used for a
stable was entirely demolished; two bodies were found there; one of the two horses was killed, and the other was
injured. This stable was about 100 feet from the shaft, down the main drift. Two bodies were found along the
drift, and the fragments of at least one body were found in the magazine itself. As is usually the case with an
explosives accident, the cause could not be determined. As is always frequently the case, no great damage was
done to the mine. A rescue party reached the scene within 35 minutes after the explosion, and the cage was in
operation in about 11 hours. The position of the magazine near the shaft, but beyond it, considered in reference
to the main drift precluded the possibility of any man being cut off from escape in case of accident, and also
aided in the rapid dissipation of the gas; no one was asphyxiated.
Source: In 1998 (Reprinted 2001), the Mine Safety and Health Administration
published a three volume index, Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States: Volume III - Metal
and Nonmetal Mines - 1885 - 1998, 71 pages, page 12
Submitted by:
Jerry
Sherard (6 March 2015)
http://miningaccidents.weebly.com/
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