What were the main causes of the Cherry Mine Disaster?
What were the main causes of the Cherry Mine Disaster?
On Saturday, November 13, 1909, while 480 workers toiled in the mine, a cart carrying hay to feed the sixty or seventy mules that pulled the underground coal cars caught fire. The hay cart had been left too close to a kerosene lamp the workers were using for light after the electricity failed.
How many men died in the Cherry Mine Disaster?
259 boys
On Nov. 13, 1909, a disaster in the Cherry Mine in Cherry, Illinois, killed 259 boys and men. Cherry Mine was opened in 1905 and supplied coal for a regional railroad. The miners were mainly immigrants, many of them Italian, who didn’t speak English.
What were the dangers of coal mining?
Miners are also directly exposed to toxic fumes, coal dust and toxic metals, increasing their risk for fatal lung diseases such as pneumoconiosis and silicosis. The toll on the physical landscape is severe. One of the most serious impacts of coal mining is acid mine drainage.
What are some positive results of the Cherry mine fire?
One of the positive results of the Cherry Mine Disaster was rapid passage of new state safety legislation for the coal-mining industry and the development of a workmen’s compensation system in Illinois (Howard 1971:424).
What is cherry coal?
Definition of cherry coal : a soft noncaking coal that burns readily.
Who owned the Cherry mine?
Paul Coal Company
Paul Coal Company began mining coal at Cherry in 1905 and by 1909 was mining 300,000 tons annually. The owner and sole customer was the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad.
How many coal mines are open in Illinois?
Today there are still 22 mines in operation, and Illinois is the country’s fifth-largest coal producer.
When was the Cherry Mine Disaster?
November 13, 1909
1909 Cherry Mine disaster/Start dates
Where was the Cherry Mine Disaster?
Cherry, IL
1909 Cherry Mine disaster/Location
How many people died in the Cherry Mine disaster?
259 dead. The Cherry Mine disaster was a fire in the Cherry, Illinois, coal mine in 1909, and surrounding events, in which 259 men and boys died. The disaster stands as the third most deadly in American coal mining history.
Why did the Cherry Mine catch on fire?
Shortly after noon, a coal car filled with hay for the mules caught fire from one of the wall lanterns. Initially unnoticed and, by some accounts, ignored by the workers, efforts to move the fire only spread the blaze to the timbers supporting the mine.
Who was the owner of the Cherry Mine?
In November 1909 the St. Paul Coal Company, which owned the mine, employed a total of 481 men and boys. So many of them were from the Streator area that Cherry was known as a Streator “colony.”
Where was the coal mine disaster in 1909?
Illinois History Store® – Vintage Illinois and Chicago logo products. Cherry, Illinois Mine Disaster of 1909 (The shorter version w/photos) In November 1909 the St. Paul Coal Company, which owned the mine, employed a total of 481 men and boys. So many of them were from the Streator area that Cherry was known as a Streator “colony.”