Santa Barbara News-Press (Santa Barbara, California), Friday, August 15, 1941
Seattle, Aug. 14. (AP) - A rock slide after an explosion buried seven workmen in a stone quarry for the Japonski island naval air base at Sitka, Alaska, the 13th Naval district office announced Thursday night, and six were feared dead One man was known dead. Five men still buried were believed dead. One of the workmen was known to be alive and was being dug out. He was H. W. Hagadorn.
The six men listed as dead or probably dead were:
E. A. Burkley, C. R. Best, E. N. Rosser, R. J. McClure, C. D. Strode and R. Carlson.
All of the men were employes of the Siems-Drake Construction company, which is building the base.
INQUIRY PLANNED
Navy officials said reports indicated the blast started the slide Thursday morning, burying the men in the pit.
A naval board of investigation will be designated to conduct an inquiry into the tragedy, the district headquarters said.
The navy had no information on whether the workmen were regular residents of Alaska or whether they were from among the hundreds of men who had gone north from the States in the past year for work on the army and navy air bases in Alaska.
The quarry, in which the navy officials here presumed the slide occurred, is on Japonski island with the base. It is in Sitka sound, about 200 yards offshore from the town of Sitka.
NAMED BY RUSSIA
(The island was named Japonski (Japanese) by the Russians because a Japanese junk went ashore on the coast in 1805 and the rescued sailors lived for a time on the isle.)
Sitka is one of the half dozen major air bases being rushed to completion by the army and navy in the northern territory. The 1941 naval appropriation requests included close to $5,000,000 for the Sitka base and appropriations listed for Sitka's base from the previous congress were close to $3,000,000.
The town of Sitka, booming from defense workers, is situated on Baranof island, about 100 miles south and slightly eastward of Juneau, the capital, in southeastern Alaska.
Sitka, Alaska (AP) - A roaring 35 foot wall of rock, loosed by a premature explosion, resulted in the deaths of six workmen at quarry for the big U. S. naval air base on Japonski island in Sitka harbor.
A seventh man, H. W. Hagadorn of Tacoma, Wash., was rescued after he had lain helpless for five hours under a mass of rocks. He suffered only slight head injuries and bruises.
The slide occurred yesterday noon. Three bodies have been recovered,
those of Ralph J, McClure, Seattle; Commodore Dewey Strode, son of Mrs. L. A. Strode of Camas, Wash., and Ralph Carlson, son of Mrs. E. Folk, Kingston, Idaho.
The other victims were: E. A. Burkley, C. R. Best and E. R. Rosser, the latter believed to be of Seattle.
All were employes of the Siems-Drake Construction company, builder of the many million dollar base.
First Death on Alaska Jobs
The deaths were the first listed for the company in the work on three major naval bases in Alaska.
The construction company declined to release any information on the
tragic accident, referring inquiries to the navy. The navy gave only meager details.
Other reports were that eight other men were caught in the slide but escaped after a jackhammer struck a hidden dynamite charge.
In Sitka Harbor
The island on which the air base and quarry are situated about 200 yards offshore from the town of Sitka, in the island and mountain framed harbor. Sitka is on
the Pacific ocean side of Baranof island, about 100 miles southwest of Juneau. It has been booming center of defense activity.
The Tacoma Times (Tacoma, Washington), Saturday August 16, 1941
Sitka, Alaska - Careless priming of dynamite with a powder stick was blamed Friday for an explosion Thursday night which crumpled a hillside at the $15,000,000 Japonski Island naval air base project and killed six men.
A hundred rescue workers dug the mangled bodies of the victims out of the heaps of boulders, dirt and stumps.
The dead were Ralph J. McClure, Seattle; Rudolph Carlson, Sitka; C. D. Strode, 43, Camas, Wash; Edgar A. Burkley, Seattle; Earl N. Roser, 37, Seattle; and
Courtney R. Best, Carlsbad, N. M. The bodies of all but Burkley had been recovered and identified early Friday.
Eye witnesses said the explosion apparently was caused by too forceful handling of the powder stick. Twenty cases of powder were exploded prematurely in 12 passages that had been drilled to remove a hillock of earth called Caseway point at the south end of Japonaki island.
RESCUER OPERATIONS
PROVE HAZARDOUS
Vince Jacopata, powder expert, directed the rescue operations which were made hazardrous by unexploded dynamite scattered through the area.
Harry W. Hagadorn, formerly of Tacoma, was the only survivor of the group of seven men buried when the explosion oecurred. Hagadorn, who suffered head and leg
injuries, was buried for six hours. Mel Dennis and Emil Nelson, whe were working nearby, said the whole side of the hill seemed to collapse.
Thirteenth naval district headquarters in Seattle said an investi-
gation would be started immediately.
The men apparentiy were working under a hill Thursday when a premature blast started an avalanche.
Soldiers, sailors, marines and other workmen were quickly organized to dig.
Hagedorn smoked and drank coffee while they pried boulders away from him. "Looks like I'm the only one left alive around here," he said.
The victims were employed by the Seims-Drake-Puget Sound Construction eompany. Construction on the base was started more than two years ago.
