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The following is from the Boston Evening Globe. This from a
statement my Uncle told of how he and others were rescued through an
air
shaft.
I looked at my watch and saw it was pretty near quitting time.
That was around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. We started up, laughing
like we always do, and thinking of that fresh air we would be getting
in
a few minutes. We were about 500 feet underground when all of a
sudden
there was a rumbling explosion that rocked everything. I was
knocked
cold for a minute and when I came to, I could feel the earth still
trembling.
There was so much dirt and coal dust it was almost impossible to
breathe.
You could just feel old man death rolling through the tunnels and
corridors.
There was terrible confusion, enough to make a man crazy. I felt
sick all over. I could smell death, too. It was that awful
coal gas, the stuff we're scared of all day and have nightmares about
all
night. You smell it and then if there's enough of it around it
just
rolls over you like a blanket, and traps you in a hole and snuffs out
your
life.
It's true about your whole life unfolding before you when you think
you're a goner. It's just like a movie. I remembered I had
been mean to a dog once when I was a kid, and I remembered the first
time
I went to church.
I thought of dad right away, too (John Pick, Sr. 54), who had gone
down into the shaft with me this morning lugging his lunch box and
yelling,
"So long, Jack. See you at quitting time." We separated right
after
that. So far as I know, he's still down there, fighting for a
breath
of air with the others. I called out for some of the men who had
started up with me--Joe Bancil, Harry Greathouse, Eddie Dunn
and a couple of others. I called them by name and they all
answered.
It seemed like an eternity before we got ourselves straightened out and
finally made it up to the top (through an air shaft). I must have
passed out again, because the next thing I remember a Red Cross nurse
was
washing my face with a wet cloth in the Community Center basement and
there
were a lot of people around. I asked about dad, but nobody had
any
news.
