Matilde Robledo helped to save Alfonso M. Sias from an explosion, Santa Rita, New Mexico, September 26, 1925. Sias, 27; Robledo, 46, both powdermen, and two other men were igniting the fuses of charges of dynamite on masses of copper ore on a mountainside at night when Sias got his foot caught beneath a large rock. About 25 charges that were scattered nearby had been lighted. Robledo ran 25 feet up the sloping face of the ore to Sias, and he and another man tried to move the rock. A brother of Sias joined them, but the efforts of the three to move the rock were futile. Then they began to throw away the sticks of dynamite to which the lighted fuses were attached. When the men had covered an area about 15 feet around Sias and had thrown away 12 to 15 sticks of dynamite, the first charge exploded. The men were thrown to the ground, and in darkness they crawled 35 feet and got beneath a steamshovel. In the meantime other charges exploded, one of which moved the rock that held Sias and thus freed him. Sias then crawled to the steamshovel. None was injured. 25676-2199
25676 – 2199
25676-2199