Cape Breton's Magazine

contact with one every three feet, could get past this destruction. till we A little further up into the southwest section, just before the area where six bodies were found, there was a piece of machinery there, right across the level. We worked our way past that piece of ma? chinery, and just ahead we came across the remaining bodies. At that time, three teams had already been in there. They man? aged to remove three victims. They did have some difficulty covering some of the victims that remained. Myself and Tom Wil? cox and Dan Hillier, who were all volun? teer firemen and have seen bodies before-- we had planned to go in and finish cover? ing up the remaining bodies that were cov? ered up, in order to make it easier for the other guys in the team that didn't see this. Those guys did assure me that they could handle it. So from there the team headed in. We came across the first victim. I examined the I body. There were signs of heat in that area. The hair was singed. The hands were clenched into fists. There was some indication that they had some kind of warning: self- rescuers on two men had been opened. They ap? peared to me that they had left the... working face and had indeed trav? elled out ap? proximately 200 Ice Cream Company and Specialty Bakery Cape Breton Shopping Plaza 539-0424 • Wonderful Hand-made Ice Cream • Luscious freshly baked waffle cones| • Scrumptious Cheesecake • Wonderful Warming Bakery Creations • Relaxing Ice Cream Parlour Simply Outstanding! 1 HOWARD NARDOCCHIO • GENERAL MANAGER IVs time to look twice where you will spend your hard-earned dollar. At ISLAND MAZDA, we back up your investment with service that's second to none & a factory warranty that's an envy in the industry. maZDa "it just feels right' feet in a group, when the explosion oc? curred. It seemed to me like maybe some? thing small happened and they had some kind of warning, and they started out of the mine. And then the main force of the explosion stopped them where they were. We completed covering that victim. Some of the guys that were new to this had some difficulty. They were taking their time and being gentle. It was almost like they were trying to help somebody that was hurt rather than somebody that had lost their life. I stepped in at that time and made them do the job quickly. I thought they would have an easier time of it later on if they didn't spend too much time han? dling the body. After that we completed two other victims that teams had difficulty in covering, and we took a quick examination of the area. We loaded one of the victims into the stretcher and headed out. The way in to southwest section was diffi? cult, carrying an empty stretcher. Carry? ing the victim out was ten times harder. Here you have on a stretcher that's rough? ly six feet long. And you have to try to squeeze it through areas that maybe are only one foot or two feet apart. We liter? ally had to take the stretcher over some of these arches. We had to get on our hands and knees and pull the stretcher along with rope underneath some of (the arches), and back up on other ones, and back down through--just kind of like a maze, trying to find our way out of the southwest section. We managed to get the body to Number 9 crosscut, where the rest were being left so that the area could be sealed off. I think everybody was a little bit sad at the fact that what we found were bodies I instead of live people. At that point I think we started to wonder if in? deed we were going to find somebody alive. I think we quickly put those thoughts away, and felt that we had to keep working with the idea that we were going to find somebody alive, and that way we could continue to push the teams the way we did.... TIMES HAVE CHANGED/ NOW IT'S TIME TO THINK MAZDA • SALES & SERVICING A COMPLETE LINE OF CARS, TRUCKS & VANS • ON-THE-SPOT FINANCING & LEASING .Pd/ci'u?? PHONE 564-6668 195 PRINCE ST. ?? SYDNEY, N. S.