Deseret News and Telegram, Salt Lake City, Thursday, December 12, 1957
Explosion Kills 4 Workers in Arkansas Mine (in Excelsior)
HACKETT,ARK (UP)
A coal mine explosion a mile down in the ground killed four of the six men on duty Wednesday in Arkansas’ deepest coal mine.
It was the state’s worst such disaster since a nearby mine exploded in 1942, killing seven.
The mile-deep explosion at the Bill Lewis Peerless mine was though to have been set off by an accumulation of methane gas near the
deepest level of the sloping shaft.
The explosion occurred during the third shift, when only six men are working. The mine employs a total of 160 men.
Victims were Joe Martin, 47, Gene Moore, 35, L.D. Sewell, 36, all of Paris, Ark., and George Simmons of Greenwood,
Ark.
Manager Bill Lewis said the bodies of three of the victims were taken out of the shaft a few minutes after the blast.
Gas fumes hampered the removal of the fourth for nearly four hours.
The survivors, Frank Miller, 48, of Charleston, Ark., and Kendrick Richardson, 50, of Fort Smith were hospitalized for injuries.
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