The Cherry Mine Disaster
The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad needed coal for its trains in the early twentieth century, and formed the St. Paul Coal Company to provide it. In 1905 St. Paul Coal opened a mine near Cherry, Illinois. By 1909 the mine consisted of two vertical shafts which connected three subterranean horizontal shafts which were situated in three layers. The vertical shafts consisted of a main shaft, which was beneath a machinery tower, and a secondary shaft, which as in the case of the main shaft was equipped with wooden staircases and wooden ladders. The effect was of an elongated tic-tac-toe board, with the vertical shafts separated by about 300 feet.
Fresh air was supplied to the mine shafts by a fan that was installed near the secondary shaft. Obviously the deeper horizontal shaft did not contain air of the same quality as in the shafts above. The mine moved coal in cars which could be operated electrically, but frequent power outages led to the mine using mule pulled coal trams within the mine, with the mules lowered into the mind via the hoist in the main shaft. The majority of the miners who worked in the mines were immigrants, many of them recent arrivals who did not speak or understand English. The miners were paid a percentage based on their production, which led them to work longer than normal shifts.
November 13, 1909 was a Saturday, and another day in which electrical service was disrupted. The miners needed to use oil lamps and carbide lamps for light in which to work. About 500 workers were in the mine, as well as three dozen mules, when a fire began in a coal car which had been filled with hay with which to feed the mules. The fire spread to timber beams before it was of serious concern to the men in the mine, and in an attempt to reduce the buildup of smoke and toxic gases the fan at the top of the secondary shaft was reversed. This had the effect of causing the fire to spread to the secondary shaft and its wooden staircase.
With the secondary staircase in flames men struggled to reach the main shaft, which was closed along with the secondary shaft in the hope that it would smother the fire. About 200 men managed to reach the surface through the use of the main hoist or through manholes designed for the purpose. Several miners who reached the surface cleared their lungs and returned to the mine to help others. Several died in the attempt. Twenty-one men barricaded themselves in the mine, and remained there for the next eight days, surviving on water which seeped through a coal vein. When the water ran out they left to find another source, and were found by a rescue team.
One man of the party died two days after leaving the mine, from lung problems exacerbated by the toxic gases in the mine. He was one of the 259 victims of the disaster. The Illinois legislature cited the fire when it called for stronger mine safety regulations and more stringent enforcement. The mine was sealed for just over two months to ensure that all of the coal veins were no longer smoldering before it was reopened. It continued to operate until reduced demand for coal led to it being shut down during the Great Depression. Other than the disaster of 1909, it had a relatively good safety record.