The Last Fuse: A Chewelah Mine Blast Kills One and Injures Another
At the Blue Star mine, Jay Michael was lighting the tenth fuse when the explosion came. Pearl Easterday died of head injuries before he could be brought to help.
Chewelah, Feb. 19. — One man was killed and one injured in a premature explosion at the Blue Star mine, about three and one-half miles east of Chewelah, Thursday night.
The day shift working at the face of a 600-foot tunnel consisted of two men, Jay Michael and Pearl Easterday. Just before going off the day shift, they had put in a round of ten machine holes, loaded them and attached a four and one-half-inch fuse to each hole.
Michael was lighting the fuses at the face of the tunnel. Mr. Easterday stood about six feet behind Michael, holding an extra light so that if the latter's light should be extinguished by the spitting of the fuse, Easterday could furnish him a new light. Michael was lighting the last or tenth fuse when the explosion occurred.
When Michael came to, he went to the hoist shaft and signaled to the engineer that an accident had occurred. The engineer immediately sent down a man to investigate, who found Mr. Easterday lying about 40 feet back from the face of the tunnel unconscious. He was immediately taken to the surface and died in about three-quarters of an hour from injuries received about the head.
“Michael was lighting the last or tenth fuse when the explosion occurred.”
Hardrock mining in 1909 depended on hand-held lights, fuse lengths and luck; a single premature blast could kill a crew before anyone understood what happened. The Blue Star accident is a reminder that workplace safety rules now taken for granted were written in blood. The same tension between production and protection still shapes dangerous jobs in Washington.
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