Charles Zolninger helped to rescue Oliver H. Brewer and Alvah Dean from a cave-in in a well, Frederick, Oklahoma, October 28, 1913. Brewer, 58, laborer; Dean, 21, civil engineer, and five other men were working in a well 45 feet deep and 20 feet in diameter, which was lined with a wall of cemented brick. Two steel girders crossed the well 20 feet from the top and two more 12 feet under them. They supported heavy pump machinery, and there were platforms and timber structures on the girders. The wall caved from the bottom up, and a tangled mass of timbers, machinery, sand, and bricks fell on the workmen, killing five of them almost instantly. Brewer and Dean were seriously injured, and they were imprisoned beneath the debris, just above a mixture of sand and water 13 feet deep. Zolninger, 30, plumber, and other men soon reached the scene. After a short time Zolninger and two other men descended a ladder to the top of the debris, although other men called to them to come back, as a section of the wall which remained standing was out of plumb, and likely to fall. Zolninger and one of the men with him cut a hole through the debris at the foot of the standing wall and aided Brewer to reach the surface. They then entered the hole they had made with a light. Zolninger examined the timbers between him and Dean, and then he and one of his companions, working alternately, cut a passage through them to Dean. Dean’s feet were pinned against the wall by timbers which it was thought best not to cut, because they seemed to be supporting the debris above them, and it was decided that nothing further could be done until the debris would he removed. Zolninger and his companion had been working in the hole about five hours. They then went to the surface and helped other men remove debris from the top of the pile. After eight hours’ work, a mass of sand greater than all the debris removed fell into the well. Zolninger cried with discouragement. He and two other men then entered the hole that had previously been cut. They knew what the result might be if they cut the timbers which held Dean, but they remained and cut the timbers with saws. As the first timber was being cut, something above them snapped, and the saw was held so tightly in the timber that it could not be moved. This timber was cut with another saw, and two other timbers were cut. Dean was then released and aided to the surface, three hours after the second cave had occurred. 11973-1065
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