The Wichita Daily Eagle

DROWNED LIKE RATS

THIRTEEN MINERS CAUGHT BY RUSHING WATERS.

RESCUERS AT WORK

FIRE DAMP MAKES THEIR TASK VERY HAZARDOUS.

TWO ITALIANS STRUCK FIRST CERTAINLY DROWNED AND LITTLE HOPE FOR THE OTHERS.

Waters have been accumulating while the companies figured on the drainage.

List of the probably lost.

Denver, Aug. 29.—A special to the News from Central Lake City, Colorado, says: The accidental flooding of the Americus and Sleepy Hollow mines this afternoon caused the death, it is believed, of thirteen miners. Every effort is being made to rescue the unfortunate men, but little hope is entertained. A little after 3 o'clock the water in the lower workings of Fisk mine east of the main shaft broke through the old workings of a vein that has not been worked for a number of years. Coursing eastward it struck the Americus where two Italian miners whose names have not been learned were at work in the lower part of the shaft. They were both drowned. In its course the water diverted to the Sleepy Hollow mine, the easterly portion of the Fisk vein. Fourteen men were working in the Sleepy Hollow, three of whom escaped. A courier was sent to the adjacent mines and all their workmen escaped.

PROBABLY DROWNED.

Those in the Sleepy Hollow whose escape was shut off were as follows:

N. VEGAS.
B. BROCKEN
BROWER PRISK.
WILLIAM PRISK.
THOMAS E. PROUSE.
THOMAS WILLIAMS
M. PLACONI.
THOMAS CALBIS.
J. HARRIS.
S. VALLERO.
JOHN PARKS.

The sounding of the whistle gave the first signal of the disaster and soon the shaft building of the Sleepy Hollow mine was so packed with the families and friends of the imprisoned miners and those anxious to render assistance that it was almost impossible for the work of attempting a rescue to proceed.

RESCUERS AT WORK.

Deputy Sheriff W. W. Williams finally arrived on the ground, the building was cleared and practical miners offered their services in lowering the bucket. The farthest depth attained was 330 feet, the accumulated gas forced up by the raising water being such that a candle would not burn at a greater depth. A second effort was made, a larger sized safety lamp having been placed in the bucket. The rescuer who first descended in the bucket, Mr. H. P. Risk, was found at the 330 foot level. On reaching the surface he was almost in an insensible state. Other volunteers went down afterward but were not successful in reaching a lower point in the shaft, owing to the raising of the water. Extra water buckets were sent for and brought to the mine which are now working with a view of lowering the water. The managers of the properties were on the ground and were very assiduous in their efforts to relieve the men. The two in the Americus are without doubt drowned. Those in the Sleepy Hollow unless they can be found in some of the slopes have met death in a similar manner. Ever since the closing down of the pumps in the incline shaft of the new Gregory Mining company the waters in that shaft have been gradually raising, the owners of the Fisk mine having been driven out of the lower to the upper workings. This was due to the inability of the owners of the Fisk and Sleepy Hollow to agree upon a plan to pro-rate the drainage.