L. Winston Chew, 36, stationary engineer, helped to save Robert S. Cathers, 58, and Noah Goss, 33, miners, from suffocation, Joplin, Missouri, August 12, 1912. Fire broke out in buildings at the shaft of a mine, and burning embers fell into the shaft. Timber curbing in the shaft was destroyed, and from time to time small stones fell down the shaft. The pump was disabled almost at once. Heat and smoke were drawn down into the mine, and the water in the sump rose from 75 to 100 gallons a minute. The shaft was filled with smoke and steam to a point 20 feet below the surface. The workings were less than 2,000 square feet in area. Men attempted to pump air into the workings through a six-inch drill hole but had little success. The air that issued from the drill hole was so hot as to nearly scorch the faces of men who stood over the hole. Cathers and Goss, the only men in the mine, could be heard at the drill hole for a time, and then nothing more was heard from them. A wet apron was tied over Chew’s mouth and nose, and he had himself lowered into the shaft by means of a rope and windlass. Forty feet from the surface the air was so hot that he was nearly overcome. He was drawn to the surface, where he vomited. Another man was then lowered 100 feet to the floor of the mine with a rope around him and a wet apron over his mouth and nose, and then Chew was lowered. Both of them went 40 feet from the shaft and found Cathers and Goss. They were choked at every breath by the smoke. They took Cathers, who was unconscious, to the shaft and tied the rope around him, and he was hoisted. On their way back to get Goss, Chew’s companion became sick and had to return to the shaft. Chew tied the rope around him and sent him to the surface, then Chew went to Goss and assisted him to the shaft and sent him to the surface. The rope was delayed while being lowered to Chew, and he begged the men handling it to hurry. The rope was lowered to him, and he was hoisted about 30 minutes after the beginning of the act. He was sick from the hot air and smoke and was disabled five days. Cathers and Goss recovered. 9860-1160
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