The Bridgeport Telegram Conn. Nov. 25, 1926 5 Miners Are Alive Entombed 9 Days Fear Remaining Man is Drowned - Others Will Spend Thanksgiving With Their Families - Rejoicing in the Anthracite Region. Hazelton, Pa. Nov. 24th. Five of the six men entombed nine days ago by a flood in the Tomhicken Mine of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company were taken out alive tonight and will spend Thanksgiving with their families. All except CHARLES SMITH were rescued. He was some distance below the section where they had been working on the day of the accident. Whether he is alive or dead was not determined but it was feared he was drowned. The rescued men were: Harry KURCHDOERFER?, Assistant Foreman August YENCHICK Michael LAWRENCE John GONDERA? John LORINEZ All the men were in good physical condition though they had been without food or water since a week ago last Tuesday afternoon. They were able to go to their homes, where happy reunions occurred. KIRCHDOERFER seemed to be the strongest of the five. "Oh pshaw, I didn't want to ride," was the expression of the assitant foreman, as an automobile drove up to take him home. KIRCHDOERFER was the life of the party and kept the spirits of the men up until they heard the glad word of their rescuers. The rescue caused great excitement in the little village and all through the Lehigh coal field. The men were found in an old breast of the No. 8 tunnel, and not No. 16, where they were supposed to have been. KIRCHDOERFER, when the flood occurred was going down the No.8 slope when he heard the bumping cars and surmised that something was wrong. He called to the men who had been damming up water in the No. 16 slope, turned, and ran up an old travel-way to No. 8 east of old gangway. When KIRCHDOERFER got there he found the men had not followed him. He ran through the rising waters and raced after his comrades who were running in the opposite direction in No. 16. Turning them about, he led them back to the manway to No. 8 east tunnel. There they found their way blocked by a fall and climbed into an old breast which was above the water level. As they sat there, they watched the water rise at first as the flood reached its crest and then saw it gradually recede as the pumping operations proceeded. How long they sat there, they could not tell. Frequently they threw stones into the water and were able to tell in this way that the flood was going down. Rescuers had been working feverishly in three shifts a day since the six men were trapped in the flooded workings when the Black Creek broke through its banks a week ago last Tuesday. Hope of finding any of the men alive had been virtually abandoned. But steadfastly maintaining that their husbands and fathers would be returned to them, the families of the men refused to give up hope. One of the wives was so confident he would return that she kept a dish of hot soup constantly in readiness for him. The general belief that the victims were dead did not in any way deter the rescue work, mine officials declaring that they would leave nothing undone in their efforts to reach the workmen. After engineers had made sure the creek would not again break from its course, great electric and steam pumps were set to work to clear the water from the flooded workings,1,200 feet underground. This was a big job and had not been completed tonight. Whole sections of the underground tubes collapsed from the sweep of the waters and blocked most of the passages, debris was piled high and obstacles of all sorts were encountered. Last Friday the rescuers, believing that the imprisoned men might have taken refuge in abandoned breasts above water levels, started drilling holes through the mountainside into these chambers. Food, water and fresh air were to be forced through these holes. The first of these small 4 inch shafts was pierced thru Sunday night and an electric bulb dropped thru the pipe with another bulb on the outside. Since then watchers had stood by hoping to see the surface light flicker which would have been a sign that some were still alive. The light did not flicker, nor did any sound come up thru the hole that had been bored by a diamond drill to the open space below. The slightest touch to the light sent down into the depths of the mine would have been signaled to the surface. Fear of black damp, always a serious menace under conditions that prevail in the flooded mine, gave the rescue workers no little concern. In order to minimize this air compressors were installed and kept going day and night. Lehigh Valley Coal company officials estimated that the cost of the rescue work would exceed $100,000. Five of the entombed men were found alive in a breast in No. 8 slope, one and a half miles inside the tunnel that was flooded.