Teodoro 0. Rios helped to save Alfonso M. Sias from an explosion, Santa Rita, New Mexico, September 26, 1925. Sias, 27; Rios, 30, 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. Rios ran 25 feet down the sloping face of 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. The men covered an area about 15 feet around Sias, throwing 12 to 15 sticks of dynamite. Rios threw four or five sticks of the dynamite as far as he could, and the last stick he threw exploded in the air. 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. 25675-2200
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25675-2200