1927 — April 30, Federal No. 3 Coal Mine gas and dust explosion, Everettville, WV — 97
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 2-25-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–111 Associated Press. “Ground Broken For WVa Mine Disaster Monument.” April 7, 2009.
— 97 Bureau of Mines, US Dept. of Commerce. Report on Gas and Dust Explosion at Federal…
— 97 Dillon. They Died in Darkness. 1976, p. 196.
— 97 Mine Safety and Health Administration, “A Pictorial Walk through 20th Century…”
— 97 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 97 United States Mine Rescue Assoc. Mine Disasters in the United States. Federal No. 3.
–91 in the mine
— 6 in aboveground mine tipple
— 97 West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training. 2006. WV Mine Disasters.
Narrative Information
Associated Press. 4-7-2009: “More than 100 workers killed in a 1927 explosion at the Federal Number 3 mine in Monongalia County will be honored with a monument and memorial park.
“Ground was broken Sunday for the project, which is being developed by the Everettville Historical Association. A small brass plaque on a hillside near the old mine portal is the only existing memorial to the 111 workers killed in the disaster. The miners’ names will be inscribed on the new granite monument, along with those of other workers killed during the mine’s years of operation.” (Assoc. Press. “Ground Broken For WVa Mine Disaster Monument.” 4-7-2009.)
Bureau of Mines, US DOC. Report on Gas and Dust Explosion at Federal No. 3…April 30:
“Introduction.
“A gas and dust explosion occurred at 3:20 p.m. April 30, 1927 at the Federal No. 3 Mine of the New England Fuel and Transportation Company, Everettville, W. Va. Six men were killed in the tipple and 91 in the mine. Of the 91 men killed in the mine, 86 met instant death, 2 traveled a distance of about 500 feet before they were overcome by afterdamp. Messages written by one of the 3 men in the pumproom on scraps of paper torn from cement bags indicate that they lived 3 hours or more. Five workmen in the tipple were seriously injured. Nine men were temporarily imprisoned in the South Main section of the mine. One of these made his way through the smoke to the outside and returned with a party of men wearing self-rescuers. The 8 who had barricaded themselves in No. 3 room 7 left off the south mains were supplied with self-rescuers, they then walked out of the mine. These men were rescued within about 2 hours after the explosion.
“The explosion originated near the farthest working face in the mine when a storage battery locomotive ignited an accumulation of explosive gas. The entire mine, excepting the south mains, was involved. Propagation was due to coal dust and an atmosphere more or less charged with methane for the first 4000 feet. Propagation throughout the balance of the workings was due to the presence of coal dust. Flame of the explosion extended beyond the tipple; there was evidence of heat 500 feet out by the pit mouth.
“The mine was not systematically rock-dusted. About a year prior to the explosion the haulage roads were rock-dusted but no attempt was made to maintain the incombustible content of the dust at any definite standard. There were a number of local depressions I the coal bed and as a general rule the mine was wet at such places but water was not used on the cutting bars of coal cutting machines, or for sprinkling the roadways to allay the dust….” [pp. 1-2]
Lessons To Be Learned.
“Probably the most important lesson to be learned from the conditions as they relate to this explosion is that dependable adequate ventilation must be provided to insure freedom from accumulations of explosive gas.
“It is of equal importance that the men whose duty it is to inspect for gas should not only be capable of detecting small percentages of gas but they should also be men who are aware of and recognize or fully realize the danger there is in small as well as large accumulations of gas. The two officials who were within 50 feet of the supposed origin of the explosion must [word must is lined through and “should” is hand-written in instead] have had some knowledge of the condition of the atmosphere in the shaft headings.
“The conditions as they relate to this explosion show that when a mine is electrically equipped only equipment of the permissible type should be used where gas is likely to be encountered…. [p. 28]
“Probable Cause of the Explosion.
“In the judgment of the Bureau investigators the cause of the explosion was a failure or interruption of the ventilation allowing gas to accumulate at or near the face of the shaft headings. This accumulation of gas was ignited by sparks or arcs from an open type storage battery locomotive which was advancing toward the face of the shaft heading air course to pull out a loaded mine car….” [p. 29]
Dillon: “The mine was somewhat unstaffed that fateful day [payday] with about one hundred and two men working inside and several on the outside, eleven of them operating the tipple [structure used for loading coal into railroad cars]. Quitting time was at five o’clock. At 3:25 in the afternoon the big mine with her big coal went up with a tremendous explosion. Over ninety men died at that instant and some others were fatally hurt on the outside….
“The scene at the drift mouth was an ugly one. A tongue of flame had shot from the mine with a force that demolished the tipple where eleven men were working, two of them dying instantly, the others entangled in timbers and crumpled steelwork. Debris lay along the tracks and below the remains of the tipple. Railroad cars under the tipple loading were knocked over and away from the tracks. Mine timbers, mine cars, and stones flew from the mine mouth striking the hill-side across the ravine, some parts flying as far as a hundred yards….
“A total of ten men…escaped death on the inside of the mine….
“Six thousand sightseers came up from Morgantown and down from Fairmont and from small hamlets and crossroads….
“Not all bodies were recovered until May 13, fourteen days after the explosion…
“Jerome T. Pyles was spared at Benwood in 1924 when he failed to go inside. He was also spared at Jamison be being among those who were inside but not in the explosion area. But the third time in an explosion he died.
“On May 13, as the last bodies were being hunted at Everettville, an explosion far to the south in the Shannon Branch mine on the outskirts of Welch blew up killing eight men.” (Dillon 1976, pp. 196-204)
Sources
Associated Press. “Ground Broken For WVa Mine Disaster Monument.” Times West Virginian. April 7, 2009. Accessed 2-25-2025 at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.timeswv.com/archives/ground-broken-for-wva-mine-disaster-monument/article_b9dbc0ec-880e-594f-a92a-6a5be24364b3.html&ved=2ahUKEwih0JXH-N-LAxVmF1kFHfCgGtwQFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3m8wtvlK3SlcydjCviw62q
Bureau of Mines, U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Report on Gas and Dust Explosion at Federal No. 3 Mine, New England Fuel and Transportation Company, Everettville, W. VA., April 30, 1927. Accessed 2-25-2025 at:
https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/04-30-1927_Federal_No3.pdf
Dillon, Lacy A. They Died in Darkness. Parsons, WV: McClain Printing Co., 1976.
Mine Safety and Health Administration. “A Pictorial Walk Through the 20th Century – Collieries, Tipples, Headframes and Plants.” Arlington, VA: MSHA, U.S. Department of Labor. Accessed 12-30-2008 at: http://www.msha.gov/century/colliery/colliery.asp
National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1
United States Mine Rescue Association. Mine Disasters in the United States. “New England Fuel and Transportation, Federal No. 3 Mine Explosion, Everettville, Monongalia County, West Virginia, April 30, 1927, No. Killed – 97.” Accessed 2-25-2025 at: https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/federal_no3.HTM
West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training. WV Mine Disasters 1884 to Present. MHS&T, October 9, 2008 update. At: http://www.wvminesafety.org/disaster.htm