At 3 p.m. last Thursday 174 men hung their brass identity disks in the lamphouse of Cumberland No. 2 colliery and went below the quiet, tree-shaded streets of Springhill, Nova Scotia (pop. 7,000) into the deepest mine in North America. Before the shift ended, more than half were trapped underground in Canada's worst mine disaster in 44 years. At week's end twelve men were known dead, another 81 missing and presumed dead.
What trapped the men was a "bump," a hazard peculiar to Nova Scotia soft coal mines, in which excavated seams compress...
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