Anthracite Mine Disaster
Throop, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On the morning of April 7, 1911, the nearby Pancoast mine here in Throop was the scene of a disastrous fire. Seventy-two miners died by suffocation, and a government rescue worker also was killed. This tragedy soon led to the enactment, on June 15, of state legislation requiring that all interior buildings at coal mines be constructed of incombustible materials.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
By 1911 northeastern Pennsylvania's anthracite fields powered the nation, but at a brutal human price. On the morning of April 7, fire broke out at the Pancoast mine in Throop, and seventy-two miners suffocated underground along with a government rescue worker who died trying to save them. The catastrophe pushed the state to act, and that June a new law required that buildings inside coal mines be built of fireproof materials.
Why it matters
The Pancoast tragedy is part of the long, hard-won story of American mine-safety reform, where each disaster in the anthracite region forced laws that made a deadly industry marginally less so.
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Related events
- · Pancoast mine fire
Themes & tags
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