TRANSCRIPT

One winter morning about five o'clock the mine whistles started blowing. We realized something was wrong and tumbled from our warm beds. The boarding house was ablaze. Having no fire-fighting equipment it was a smoldering ruin in a matter of minutes. The men saved very little, just what they could hurl through the windows as they made for safety. The poor fellows who were underground stood in amazement when they came off shift. All they had were the working clothes they stood in. One little story of heroism during this fire I shall never forget. The cookhouse cat came from the basement carrying a kitten, crossed the road and put it down, went back and brought out a second and placed it by the first. She went in the third time but wasn't seen again. One of the men put the little shivering things under his coat and later took them to the store. The clerk put them in a box in the window for all to see.

read by Aja Lamb-Hartley