The Harwick Mine disaster was a mining accident on January 25, 1904 in

Cheswick, Pennsylvania Cheswick is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The population was 1,672 as of the 2020 census.https://data.census.gov/all?q=Cheswick+borough,+Allegheny+County,+Pennsylvania History Cheswick, named for a town in England, is a small tow ...

, some north of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

in the western part of the state. The blast killed an estimated 179 miners and 2 aid workers. The disaster ranks among the ten worst coal mining disasters in American history. One community especially impacted was the Hungarian community in

Homestead, Pennsylvania Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, in the Monongahela River valley southeast of downtown Pittsburgh and directly across the river from the city limit line. The borough is known for the Homestead Strike of 1892, an imp ...

. Fifty-eight of the members of the First Hungarian Reformed Church of Homestead—a full third of the congregation—died in the explosion. Coal was mined by compressed-air machine, blasted down with dynamite. Ice accumulation in the air shaft restricted ventilation which caused a buildup of methane gas. At 8:15am, workers blasted down dynamite which ignited the methane. Coal dust suspended in the air assisted the explosion in traveling throughout every region of the mine. In addition to interior devastation, the force was so powerful that it wrecked the exterior of the shaft. Of 175 mine workers underground at the time, the single survivor was the severely burned 16-year-old Adolph Gunia. Other casualties included Daniel A. Lyle and the mine engineer Selwyn M. Taylor, who both gave their lives in rescue attempts after responding to the scene.Pennsylvania Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival, by Karen Ivory, pages 47-48 Greatly touched by Taylor's and Lyle's sacrifice,

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

had medals privately minted for their families, and within two months had established a $5 million

Carnegie Hero Fund The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, also known as Carnegie Hero Fund, was established to recognize persons who perform extraordinary acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada, and to provide financial assistance for those d ...

as a result. The mine was owned by the Allegheny Coal Company.

References

{{Coal mine disasters in the US 1904 mining disasters Coal mining disasters in Pennsylvania Underground mines in the United States History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania 1904 in Pennsylvania 1904 disasters in the United States January 1904 events Disasters in Pennsylvania