The Salt Lake Herald

COAL MINE ON FIRE.

Lives Lost and Great Damage Done.

A telegram received by Supt. John Sharp, on Tuesday morning, from Pleasant Valley, conveyed the information that the sheds had taken fire at the Utah Central coal mine and that John McLean and his son were yet in the mine and no hopes were entertained for saving them. Later John Fyfe, foreman of the mine, telegraphed that the mine was on fire, the timbers all burned through, the coal still burning despite efforts to smother it, and that two men had perished in the flames. The superintendent departed shortly after, taking the D. & R. G. train which had been placed at his disposal, at Provo, and on arrival at the scene of the accident sent a telegram to his son James, saying in substance that at about 3:30 o'clock the sheds in front of the tunnel took fire from the fire in the stove in the weighing room, and in a few minutes the flames had run along the sheds into the tunnel, and through the tunnel into and up the air shaft, a distance of 360 feet from the mouth of the tunnel. Of five men who were in the mine at the time, three of whom escaped, though they were nearly suffocated. The other two, John McClean and his son John, perished, and their bodies could not be recovered. It was thought that the fire had been smothered, as all the openings of the mine were completely closed with earth. Further details are awaited with anxiety; an event of this kind is a very unusual thing in Utah.