Avondale Mine Disaster

On September sixth, eighteen sixty-nine, fire broke out at the Avondale Colliery near Plymouth, Pennsylvania. The mine had only a single shaft, which also served as the ventilation airway. When the wooden breaker above the shaft caught fire, it collapsed into the opening, cutting off all escape and all fresh air at once. One hundred ten men and boys died in all, including five boys between the ages of twelve and seventeen and two volunteers who had entered trying to rescue the trapped miners.

The disaster horrified the country. Pennsylvania's General Assembly responded the following year with landmark mine safety legislation requiring separate escape routes and improved ventilation in all collieries. The Avondale fire is remembered as a turning point in American mine safety law, its horror too great to be ignored.