Stag Canon No. 2 Mine
Phelps Dodge and Company Dawson, New Mexico
October 22, 1913
No. Killed - 263
From the U. S. Bureau of Mines Report by G. S. Rice
The mine, opened by drifts, employed about 300 men. Coal was undercut, mostly by machine but some by hand-pick mining. Permissible explosives were used, fired electronically from outside. The mine was dry, and sprays were placed at intervals to wet the dust; they were not effective beyond 6 feet. The mine was usually free from firedamp except for occasional pockets, coming from the roof. Open lights were used.
At about 3 p.m. blasts carrying smoke and dust burst out of the main openings. The explosion doors and one side of the fan house were blown out but were repaired in less than 2 hours.
Of the 284 men in the mine, 14 from an unaffected section came out safely, and nine others, unconscious near the bottom of the airshaft, were rescued by an apparatus crew about 8 p.m. They were revived by the use of pulmotors.
Two helmet men were lost that night when they overtaxed the oxygen supply by overexertion and going in farther than instructed. The oxygen was supplied at a fixed rate and when they tried to remove the oxygen bottles to breathe from them, they were overcome by afterdamp.
The explosion originated in a dusty pillar section where an overcharged shot had been fired. The explosion was propagated by coal dust along the haulage roads and into most of the workings, except where water and inert dust in the roads caused it to die away.
The violence was not great, but cars were wrecked in some places and most of the stoppings blown out. Dynamite was used in blasting rock and may have been used in the pillar shot. The use of permissible explosives for all blasting, blasting only after the shift, and use of rock dust with the watering system were recommended.
