Preview

Centralia Explosion No.5

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1008 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Centralia Explosion No.5
March 25, 1947 started off as a regular day. 111 men some husbands, fathers or even both kissed their wives and children goodbye to go off to work, not knowing that would be there last kiss to their loved ones. As the men went throughout their normal work day at No. 5 Coal Mine, they looked forward to quitting time and reuniting with their loved ones. Woefully, this would never come to past. Catastrophe struck at 3:27. 111 lives were slayed out by a colossal explosion. Paramedics, firemen and policemen gathered at the scene in efforts to rescue wounded coalminers. There were 142 men at the site. 65 were killed by burns and other injuries and 45 were killed by afterdamp. Eight men were rescued, but one died from the effects of afterdamp. Only 24 miners escaped. (Centralia IL Mine Disaster).
Who is responsible for this you ask? Majority feel the blame was that of Medill and his administrators as well as the Federal and State government. Others feel Scanlan could have done more to prevent this disaster after all he did have authority to shut the mine down. I will identify and explain four logistical alternatives Scanlan could have addressed, Analyze and discuss Scanlan’s motivation toward the Constitution (the law), bureaucracy (as a public administrator responsible to the public), and obligation and discuss different actions that Scanlan could have taken. One logistical alternative Scanlon could have addressed was when he reported those findings of a possible explosion to other professional but all failed to follow safety procedures and allowed the men to continue with the job. Instead of listening to Robert
Medill the director of the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals, Scanlan Should have directly reported his findings to the Governor of Illinois, the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the State Mine Board to ensure safety measures and further infestations were established .Also, Scanlan should have developed some type of fail-safe or escape route. By having

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “All of a sudden, the boilers erupted in a mammoth explosion, nearly splitting the Sultana in half” (Billings 1). The Sultana was going upriver on the Mississippi River when the boilers and the steamer stopped working (Billings 1). When all of a sudden a gigantic explosion on the boat killed 1,700 people which is more than the Titanic (Billings 1). The boat was going up river and the boilers and steamer stopped working which caused the explosion (Billings 1).…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    March 25, 1911 started out as a normal work day for Sadie and the other 500 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. But near the end of the day, a fire broke out on the top three floors of the Asch Building where she was working. Within thirty minutes, the building was engulfed in flames and approximately 146 workers (Introduction Fire!), mostly young women including Sadie, either burned or fell to their deaths. Historians have debated who should be held responsible for the…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Darr Mine Research Paper

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1907 was the worst year in the history of America for coal miner; over 3,200 men lost their lives. Coal fueled the Industrial Age, and Pennsylvania produced the majority of it; producing over 100 million tons. Sadly, it also made the lives of coal miners and their families very hard. Miners were usually immigrant men and boys. The month of December saw three major explosions rock Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Monongah Mine explosion, in West Virginia, killed 362 miners. The Darr Mine in Jacobs Creek killed 239 miners, and lastly, the Naomi Mine, in Pennsylvania, killed 34. Workers were paid by how much coal was produced, not by how much they worked. Labor and safety laws weren’t what they are today. Management neglect, and in some cases, criminal negligence, resulted in the mass losses of life. During the aftermath of the explosion at Darr Mine, both the Superintendent and the Fire Boss resigned. They reported that they told the owners about the unsafe conditions in the mine, and were ignored.…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    On that horrid day in March a fire was born in a rag bin. It is said that the manager attempted to extinguish the fire with a hose, but the hose was rusted and dry rotted. During the panic, all the workers tried to leave by the elevator, but it could only hold twelve people. Some jumped from the windows, and then others fled down the stairwell, only to find that the door was locked. The fire was over within eighteen…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Centralia Mine

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Driscoll Scanlan was assigned by Governor Dwight Green to the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals as an inspector. Along with this assignment came the authority to shut down the mine if he felt that there was imminent danger to the miners. In fairness, he gave the mine operators numerous…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Within minutes, the quiet spring afternoon into madness, a terrifying moment in time, disrupting forever the lives of young workers. By the time the fire was over, 146 of the 500 employees had died. The survivors were left to live and relive those agonizing moments. The victims and their families, the people passing by who witnessed the desperate leaps from ninth floor windows, and the City of New York would never be the same. The images of death were seared deeply in their mind's eyes.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Centralia No. 5

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Centralia Mine opened in 1907 and remained free of fatal accidents for decades (Walker, 2006). By the 1940’s mine inspectors began reporting excessive coal dust in the mines and also provided recommendations. In March 25, 1947, the Centralia No. 5 coal mine exploded near the town of Centralia, Illinois, killing 111 people. The explosion was caused when an under burdened explosive detonation ignited coal dust. The explosion of this mine should not have been a surprise to anyone. Driscoll Scanlan, who was a state mine inspector, notified public sector safety professionals from state and federal agencies of the hazards as a result of inspections. There were also union complaints and letters to state officials. Various officials of mine safety agencies and the mine company were notified on more than one occasion. Scanlan as well as the mine’s union had also pushed to have the hazards corrected. The lack of the federal and state officials to take action, along with the ignition of built up coal dust, resulted in the death of 111 coal miners.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Centralia No 5

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There were several issues that happened that could have possibly prevented the terrible incident at the Centralia Mine. “In 1941, Illinois Governor Dwight Green appointed Robert Medill, who worked on the governor’s campaign, as director of the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals. In 1941, the governor also appointed Driscoll Scanlan, recommended by his state representative, as one of the state’s 16 mine inspectors (Martin, 1948). As mentioned, Scanlan was a by the rules type of guy. He took his job very seriously and he made several recommendations (at least fifteen reports) to the Director to make corrections at this mine. The issue was that everything was a paper trail; it went from hand to hand to hand. The assistant Director’s name was Robert Weir, who was not as serious about his job as Scanlan, and basically put the paper through the motions, but never actually followed up on them to see if the Director Robert Medill actually received them or would do anything about it. I feel that Scanlan could have followed up with his reports and basically could have harassed the office to see if they received the reports and what was being done, if he felt that they were so important. I do realize that this is easier said than done, but with his integrity and job ethic, I feel he could have gone that extra mile.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    On August 5, 2010 a San Jose Mine near Copiapo, Chili caved in causing 33 miners of the Minera San Esteban Primera Company to fall into a chamber about 2,300-feet or 300-meters below the surface (Juan Weik, 2010, para. 5). The 33 members consist of 32 Chileans, and one Bolivian (Yang, 2010). When this tragic accident happened all that was known was that 33 members were trapped in a mine underground. There was no way of knowing if the trapped workers were alive or even injured. On the news broadcast all that was shown was chaos, which was truly understandable.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Knowing Your Audience

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Yang, J. (2010). From collapse to rescue: inside the chile mine. The Star, Retrieved September 5, 2011, from http://www.thestar.com/news/world/chile/article/873382…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vasa Failure

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Was this truly a disaster? What lessons can be learned from this case and similar disasters, particularly regarding the importance of such “human factors” as courage, truthfulness, and open communication?…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It was August 5, 2010, when there was a collapse inside the main access tunnel at a small copper mining operation in northern Chile; causing 33 workers to be trapped underground (2010). The miners were believed to be in shaft about 2,200 feet below the surface. According to “Chile Mining Accident” (2010), there was no word about their fate, whether they were alive or whether they would be rescued for 17 days. A small hole was borrowed to allow rescuers to send water, sugars, and other supplies to help make them a little more comfortable. The miners were also able to be in communication with their loved ones by using the whole. It wasn’t until October 9, 2010, when the rescue efforts were successful and the miners were saved one by one (Chile Mining Accident, 2010).…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nuclear Meltdown

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Just as a restaurant would like to hide any accidents that take place in its kitchen, Rocketdyne tried to cover-up the meltdown as being nothing more than a "small" incident or boo-boo it had made. For almost forty-five years, the public accepted the false theory that no one was harmed by the nuclear meltdown. Boeing, a main representative for Rocketdynes…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Deep Horizon oil rig explosion was categorically impacted by bias decision making. The leaders that day executed from a heuristic view, and also from an overconfidence bias.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A Small Town

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages

    South Dakota, 1946. A small isolated town, known for it's wheat crop, it's ten acres of wheat crops. One night, the sky was pitch black and everything was so quiet you could hear the electrical noise coming from the outside cables. Houses were lightened by one light in the living room and the streets were illuminated by one street light per block. When suddenly an object flashes in the sky, it made a loud screeching noise. Families walked outside to see what was happening, and out of nowhere people would start screaming and running. People were terrified screaming, "RUN RUN. We need to leave." Everyone running in different directions, eben into the crops scared for their lives.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays