Cherry Hill mining disaster

The coal mine after the fire.

The Cherry Hill mining disaster on November 13, 1909 was a fire in the mine in Cherry , Illinois , in which 259 of the approximately 500 workers, including boys, died in the mine. It is the third worst mining disaster in United States history .

history

The mine

The Cherry Mine was built in 1905 by the St. Paul Coal Company to haul coal for regional rail traffic on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad . The mine consisted of three horizontal tunnels at different depths . The corridors were connected with two vertical shafts that were about 100 meters apart. Both the main shaft and the secondary shaft contained wooden stairs and ladders. In the main shaft , an approximately 25-meter-long lifting basket carried the coal to the surface. A large fan in the secondary shaft pushed fresh air into the coal mine.

The miners were mostly made up of immigrants, mostly from Italy, who often spoke little or no English. Many boys around the age of eleven also worked in the coal mine. The workers were paid very poorly instead of a fixed wage.

bad luck

On Saturday, November 13th, 500 men and boys and three dozen mules were working in the coal mine, as always. Unlike on the other days, after a power failure , the workers were forced to take kerosene lanterns and torches to illuminate the mine. Shortly after noon, a cart of hay for the mules caught fire through a kerosene lantern. Initially, the fire was not noticed by the workers, and later no efforts were made to extinguish the fire, so the fire gradually spread to other objects in the mine. It took some time to turn the fan around to blow out the fire, which did not succeed. The stairwell in the secondary shaft caught fire and workers were trapped on the floor below. Later, the two shafts were closed so that no more air could get into the shafts and the fire would be suffocated. This in turn meant that the workers got no more air, and by the mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen to suffocation died.

About 200 workers managed to get out of the mine in time using the lifting cage or the escape routes. Some miners returned to the mine to free their colleagues. Twelve of the miners, under the direction of John Bundy, made six dangerous trips inside the mine, saving many miners. When they were about to make the seventh trip into the mine, the inmates were burned because the cage operator misunderstood the signals and pulled them up too late.

Some miners built a makeshift wall in the mine to protect themselves from the toxic gases and fire. Although they persisted in the small chamber without food, they were able to drink water through a small crack. They buried themselves deeper and deeper to escape the gases and the fire even more. Eight days later, the 21 survivors, known as the Eight-Day Men , tore their way through the wall and started looking for more water in the mine, where they encountered a rescue team. One of the 21 survivors died two days later from complications with asthma .

aftermath

A year after the mining disaster, Illinois lawmakers tightened mining regulations, and in 1911 Illinois passed a law that later became the Workmen's Compensation Act .

A memorial to the victims of the disaster was inaugurated on May 15, 1971 in front of the Illinois Department of Transportation . The centenary commemoration for the deceased workers took place on 14-15. November 2009 in Cherry. A new memorial was erected by the miners at Cherry Village Hall .

The new monument is unveiled.
Debbie Halvorson gives a speech at the inauguration of the new monument in 2009.
A plaque commemorating the Cherry Hill mining disaster.