Canada’s worst ever mining disaster took place at Hillcrest, Alberta, at about 9.30am on 19 June 1914. 189 out of the 235 men working the mine that morning lost their lives. The town only had a population of about 1000 and as a result of the accident 90 women were widowed.
Among the dead were three of my third cousins, twice removed: Samuel Charlton, and brothers Samuel and Charles Ironmonger. Meanwhile, Samuel’s sister Annie and his half sister Lily White both lost their husbands. Another of the Ironmonger brothers, John, survived.
According to an account at http://coalminersmemorial.tripod.com/hillcrestminedisaster.html (itself taken from Frank W Anderson’s book, Canada’s Worst Mine Disaster):
“fireboss Sam Charleton (sic) had laid charges near Old Level One…At 9:30 a.m., it was later determined, Sam Charleton had been just about to fire the charges when there was a huge gas explosion very close to him. This initial explosion stirred up coal dust which then spontaneously triggered a second and maybe a third blast. The force of the multiple explosions travelling along the labyrinth of tunnels was horrific – with anyone near the source, like Sam Charleton, being killed outright. Even men working on the surface were not spared: the young rope-riders – Charles Ironmonger (the son of Charles Eli Ironmonger), who worked at Mine Number One and Fred Kurigatz, who worked at Mine Number Two, were both killed. The entrance to Mine Number One, which was closer to the source of the explosion than Mine Number Two's entrance, was jammed up so much debris that it was impassable. Three men -- George Wild, Antonio Stella and Arthur Crowther – who had been working near the less-damaged entrance of Mine Number Two managed to escape from the mine within the first few minutes. A trickle of survivors followed them, but by time fifteen crucial minutes had passed, the total count of survivors was only 19 -- all the others were trapped down below…”
“At 10:00 a.m., more help and vital oxygen masks arrived from the nearby towns of Blairmore, Coleman and Frank, Alberta. Under the direction of Dr William Dodd, an emergency hospital tent with oxygen and resuscitation equipment was set up outside the mine entrance. The oxygen masks allowed the heroic rescue crews, their numbers now bolstered by the new arrivals, to push deeper into the mine. By now, workers had managed to clear a small hole in the totally blocked entrance of Mine Number One, and former fireboss Harry White {presumably another of my cousins, Henry White}, equipped with oxygen, squeezed through it and dropped into Slant Number One, the part of the mine where the explosion and destruction had been the worst. Harry White had the grisly job of exploring and examining the devastated area. Initially, it was commonly assumed that fireboss Sam Charleton might have set off the explosions, but Harry White's detailed observations put an end to that speculation – Sam Charleton's body was found with the firing cable still wrapped around his waist. Harry White concluded that the initial explosion was due to methane gas ignited from a spark which could have been set off by a lamp flare, electric cable short, or even a rock fall.”
Unfortunately, the disaster was quickly forgotten, as just nine days later World War I began.