The Samuel Gompers Papers

My name is Albert Buckle ; my father's, Otto Buckle; he is dead; he died four years ago; my brother is 18 and he is in the mine; my sister, 12; my mother, Mary Buckle, is sick. My uncle is Eichard Schwartz and lives in Norfolk, Neb. I will be 16 on the 28th of November. I was a trapper. We ate dinner and then my brother came down and took a car in. He got a trip and came out in the entries and I opened the door and Matt says, 'There is a fire.' I said, 'Where?' and he said, 'At the third vein shaft.' I was in the east runway when I heard of the fire. I took my pail and set it down and Johnson, the mule boss, said, 'Bring your pails,' and we tried to get into the barn for water and we could not get in there for smoke. We could not get any water in the sump, we were too late already. The fire was burning in the main air course. Matt tried to get water with me and we tried to go through the doors (main air course), but the fire was there; I saw a car of hay burning and the timbers were starting to burn. I saw Bosenjack come running out to the main bottom. He got a cage and went up. I saw Bundy, the diggers, cagers and spraggers at the bottom. I was sitting there playing and he said, 'Fire, come out,' and I said, 'Oh, there is plenty of time,' and he said, 'There isn't time,' and the boss told us to get our water pails and get water.

After the fire started there was five or six cars of coal that went up. At half past one the diggers came along and I got my pail and went to get on the cage and the eager put me off and said, 'Get the pails and put the fire out.' I think it was George Eddy who told the drivers, 'We are going to put the fire out and go to work again.' I remained on the bottom for half an hour. We stood around there and they still hoisted coal. I think it was half an hour from the number of cars that went up. Johnson was running around opening and closing the doors and the smoke was getting strong. Dominic Christo told me that Andrew Timko would tell my brother and they went to tell the diggers to come out. My driver said, 'Bill, give us a cage; every one is going to die here,' and he said, 'No, we are going to put the fire out and start to work again.' I says, 'You ought to notify them diggers inside that is working in there,' and he says to me to run and tell them. It was after that that I told Dominic. They were hoisting coal then with the main cage. Some parties went up for a hose. They got the hose, then put something over their faces and tried to go into the barn to fasten it, but could not get in. My driver said, 'Bill, if you don't give us a cage, we are all going to choke,' but after that he gave us a cage for the smoke was too strong. As we were going up I hollered to McFadden to notify them diggers and he ran back."