Speculator Mine Fire Kills 168 Workers: Anaconda Safety Failures Trigger Butte Strike and Repression
On June 8, 1917, a fire broke out 2,400 feet underground in Butte, Montana’s Speculator Mine when an assistant foreman’s carbide lamp ignited the frayed insulation on an electrical cable. The fire spread rapidly through the mine’s timber supports and ventilation system, trapping …
Anaconda Copper Mining Company
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Metal Mine Workers' Union
Montana National Guard
labor-suppression
mining-safety
iww
progressive-era
corporate-negligence
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