A Coal Mine Burns Beneath Black Diamond
Mine No. 12 is sealed and pumped full of steam after an underground fire. Superintendent Morgans gives it two weeks to prove it can ever be worked again.
W. S. Moore, cashier of the Black Diamond Coal Company, came down from Black Diamond yesterday and in an interview stated that mine No. 12 of the company, which took fire several days ago, is now thoroughly sealed up and steam is being pumped into it at a rapid rate. Superintendent Morgans believes that the mine will either be all right in the next two weeks or useless for future work. In the event that the mine cannot be used again the company will open up a new one. It has been the custom to use the water of No. 12 mine for the boilers, but now that the mine is on fire the company, in order to get water for its boilers, has laid pipes from a nearby mountain stream. Mr. Moore says that he believes that in case the fire had broken out while the men were at work they would have been able to escape, as the mine has more than one opening.
“Superintendent Morgans believes that the mine will either be all right in the next two weeks or useless for future work.”
Black Diamond’s coal seams powered Seattle and the region for decades, and underground fires were a constant industrial hazard. The mine’s fate—reopen or abandon—is the same calculation coal communities face today as the industry contracts and workers carry the risk.
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