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Look Back: Centralia coal mine disaster, 1947
Date: 3/23/2012 Album ID: 1438230
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
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by Tim O'Neil --- It was almost quitting time for 142 men working 540 feet below ground in Centralia Coal Co.’s Mine No. 5. In operation since 1908, the mine’s tentacles ran three or more miles from the elevator shaft into the coal seams. At 3:27 p.m. March 25, 1947, coal dust exploded deep inside. Thirty-one survivors all reached surface shortly after the blast, but 111 miners were dead or dying.
Centralia Coal Co.'s Mine No. 5 in Wamac, Ill., a town just south of Centralia. At 3:27 p.m. on March 25, 1947, an explosion deep in the mine killed or doomed 111 of the 142 miners who were below ground that day. Miners who were trapped by the destruction succumbed to poison gas within a few hours. All of the survivors had been working near the main shaft, which was 540 feet deep, and escaped quickly on the elevator cars that are raised and lowered from the tower. Bell & Zoller Coal and Mining Co. of Chicago owned Centralia Coal. (Post-Dispatch)
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Volunteers help one of the survivors to an emergency first-aid station that was set up in Wamac after the explosion. (Post-Dispatch)
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An injured survivor is carried to the first-aid station. (Post-Dispatch)
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Mrs. Alfredo Pollacci (left), the wife of a miner, is comforted by a relative as she waits outside the mine for news of her husband. Miners' relatives rushed quickly to the mine as word spread about the disaster. Alfredo Pollacci, 69, was killed in the mine. (Arthur Witman/Post-Dispatch)
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A woman prays during the vigil outside the mine the evening of the disaster. (Post-Dispatch)
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Rescue workers prepare to enter the mine that evening. (Post-Dispatch)
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miner who took part in the at the mine grabs a snack from the Red Cross as a woman asks him for news. Rescuers couldn't get very far on the first night because of mine gas and damage from the blast. (Post-Dispatch)
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Soldiers from Scott Field, then an Army Air Forces base, carry the body of one of the first victims who was recovered later that night. (Post-Dispatch)
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The body of a victim is placed in an ambulance on March 27, two days after the explosion. Snow and cold weather added to the misery at Wamac, Ill. (Post-Dispatch)
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One of the many safety warnings that inspectors posted at Centralia Coal Co. No. 5, this one dated only a week before the disaster. Some of the reports tacked to a wall at the mine were two years old. (Post-Dispatch)
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Driscoll Scanlan, the state mine inspector who posted the March 18-19, 1947, notice as well as others citing poor conditions at the mine. Scanlan accused his bosses of ignoring dangerous conditions in Illinois mines. He said he tried to close No. 5 but was overruled by Robert Medill, director of the state Department of Mines and Minerals. A week before the disaster, the Post-Dispatch had disclosed that Medill was soliciting mine operators for donations to the state Republican Party. (Post-Dispatch)
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Homer F. McDonald of Chicago, president of Centralia Coal Co. Asked three days after the disaster about conditions at No. 5, he told reporters, Hell, I donŐt know anything about a coal mine. He referred questions to company executives at the scene. (Post-Dispatch)
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Rescue workers wearing breathing equipment leave the mine for a rest on the evening after the explosion. (Post-Dispatch)
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Mrs. Alvin Barnes, widow of one of the dead miners, is assisted from the scene on the fourth day of the vigil after having been told that her husband's body had been found. Said Mrs. Barnes, If we wives had known conditions, we wouldn't have let our men go to work. On the day of the explosion, she had driven to the mine to pick up her 46-year-old husband, but was told by another wife, Something's wrong. (Post-Dispatch)
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Mrs. Raymond Buehne, wife of a missing miner, with their children on March 30, 1947. She said she hoped he'd be found alive, but searchers soon found the body of her 30-year-old husband. With her are sons (from left) Billy, 5, Jerry, three months, and James, 8. (Post-Dispatch)
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The home in Centralia of miner Adolph Gutzler, 48, who was among the dead. One of his brothers also was killed in No. 5. (Post-Dispatch)
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Another miner's home, that of Charles Cagle, 54, whose body was among the first found by rescuers. His son, Tommy, also worked at the mine, but was not working that shift. (Post-Dispatch)
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Mine rescue workers wear signs in support of state inspector Driscoll Scanlan, who objected to plans to restore electricity deep in the mine four days after the explosion. Scanlan's boss, state mines director Robert Medill, had recommended turning it on to speed the work. The power stayed off. (Post-Dispatch)
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Pall bearers carry the casket of miner Edward Bude, 54, from Trinity Lutheran Church in Centralia after a funeral service on March 31, 1947. Bude was among the 111 killed in No. 5. Following in black is his widow. Bude, 53, had been a veteran of World War I. (Post-Dispatch)
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Two widows of miners killed at No. 5 attend a special hearing by U.S. senators in Centralia on April 4, 1947. They are (back row, left) Mrs. Arthur Carter and a friend, and (front row, left) Mrs. John Grotti and a friend. (Post-Dispatch)
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