Some of the survivors and rescue workers said that a roof of the mine had fallen in at many places. Many points in the shaft were nearly blocked by the falling slate, and it was hoped in some of the rooms off from the main shaft live men would be found.
If miners have a few minutes in which to prepare for gas, they can wall themselves off from the deadly fumes and wait for relief.
It was one faint hope. it wwas faint because no one had been found alive under such conditions up to late Sunday afternoon. That spurred on the rescue crews, working at top speed in an effort to reach every section of the workings in the shortest possible time.
pg 23
Fifteen rescue crews masked against poisonous gases, fought through the debris strewn passageways. Their progress was slow, for they were forced to build air locks at intervals to flood the to flood the explored sections of the mine with pure air, working in shifts, the rescuers had progressed to a point near where the terrific explosion occurred. Behind this point it was believed most of the missing men would be found. And as one veteran rescuer put it "the chances of getting them out alive are slim".
Only day men found --- Henry Filer, loader, who left the mine a few minutes before the explosion spread death through the tunnels, said that practically all the bodies brought out so far were those of day shift men. He said the rescuers must fight their way 4,000 feet further back before they could reach number 9 North, where the entire night shift was on duty. The explosion occurred just as the day men were leaving and the night crew went to work.
Out of the 212 men believed to have been in the mine at the time of the blast only 14 got out alive and one of them dies. The last three of the living were found by rescuers about 3 o'clock Sunday morning near the air shaft, almost five miles from the main entrance.
Bad air and the fact that the mine was wrecked so bacly made it impossible for more than one rescue team of ten men to work at a time. pg 24
They worked in shifts of four hours each and each man was required to wear a gas mask.
Usually there were three teams in the mine at once, one going in and another coming out while the third is at woek, the workers working working around the blast area reached a point in 29 But, about three miles from the main shaft.
The bodies thus far recovered had been picked up at scattered points. The men evidently having been on their way out when caught in the blast. If any of those remaining in the mine were still alive, it was believed they had barricaded themselves in a section of the mine remaining unexplored since the blast, but the general opinion was that no one could live long with the air as bad as it was.
The rescuers said they had come across no sign that any of the men were still alive and thay did not expect to reach the section where the entombed men might be until late Sunday night.
Superintendent J.H. Evans, who had been on the job constantly since Saturday afternoon was near collapse early Sunday morning. He had been directing the rescue work personally from the interior.
"We are not going to give up until we are absolutely certain our men are dead," he declared before being taken home and put to bed under physicians orders, and in this he was quickly seconded by Frank Armstrong, general manager of the Pickands-Mather Collieries Company of Cleveland, Ohio, operators of the mine. Mr. Armstrong rushed here from Ohio Saturday night and had been constantly in touch with the situation. pg 25
L.O.Lougee, of Pittsburgh, consulting engineer for the company said that while he feared the worst, he was still hopeful that some of the entombed men might be found alive.
"In an explosion like this, almost anything is liable to happen," he said. "If these men succeeded in getting to a remote section of the mine and barricaded themselves, they may still be alive, and we are taking no chances of overlooking anything that might save a life."