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MIRACLE AT SPRINGHILL by Leonard Lerner

MIRACLE AT SPRINGHILL

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Pub Date: June 13th, 1960
Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Springhill is in Nova Scotia, the deepest mine in North America, and this is a day by day, family by family, and victim by victim account of the ordeal which followed the explosion of 1958. Many of these anxious hours are relived here-- of the vigil outside of wives and children, of inside where of 174 men, only 81 were at first saved- and after a few days there was believed to be ""no hope left"" for the others. Among them were Wilfred Hunter, who believed he had found his twin's body dangling from a ceiling; Ruddick, the father of 12, who sustained them with prayers and hymns; Hugh Tuhro, who had been trapped for 3 days and nights in the explosion of 1956; Rector, with a mutilated arm they hesitated to amputate, who died during the days to follow; etc., etc. Finally, at the end of 6 days, 12 men were found and retrieved alive- and two days later- 7 more.... Lerner, an only adequate reporter, has a disaster story of some strength to tell, for that market which presumably has proved itself to be catastrophe and accident prone.