Underground Fire, Sally M. Walker
Underground Fire, Sally M. Walker
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
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Underground Fire

Author: Sally M. Walker

Narrator: Jennifer Jill Araya

Unabridged: 3 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/11/2022


Synopsis

"It is November 13, 1909, and the coal miners of Cherry, Illinois, head to work with lunch pails in hand, just like any other day. By seven a.m., 484 of these men are underground, starting jobs that range from taking care of the mules that haul coal to operating cages that raise and lower workers and coal to chiseling out rocks and coal from the tunnels of the mine. With the electrical system broken, they’re guided by kerosene torches—and come early afternoon, a slow-moving disaster begins, barely catching the men’s attention until it’s too late. In what starts as an hour-by-hour account, Sally Walker tells the riveting and horrifying story of the Cherry Mine fire, which trapped hundreds of men underground. Alternating between rescue efforts above and the heroic measures of those trying to survive the poor air and entrapment below, this tragic story unfolds over eight excruciating days in a narrative compelled by the miners’ hope and absolute will to survive."

About Sally M. Walker

Sally M. Walker is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Champion, a Junior Library Guild selection and one of NCTE's 2019 Orbis Pictus Honor Books. She currently resides in Illinois.

About Jennifer Jill Araya

Jennifer Jill Araya is an Audie-Award-winning narrator. Also an Earphones Award winner, an American Library Association YALSA Amazing Audiobooks Award winner, a SOVAS Award finalist, and a three-time Independent Audiobook Award finalist, she has narrated nearly 300 audiobooks. She also narrates romance and erotica under the name Isabelle Ruther. When she’s not narrating, she can be found hiking, biking, running, or generally exploring her home city of Cincinnati with her husband Arturo.


Reviews

The small town of Cherry, Illinois was forever changed on the morning of November 13, 1909. In this engrossing examination of that day, readers will observe an almost hour by hour account of a mine disaster that affected almost every person in the region. Almost five hundred men and boys descended d......more

Goodreads review by Lisa

On November 13, 1909, inside the Cherry Mine in Illinois, kerosine lamps dripped on a mine cart full of bales of straw and caught fire. As the ventilation fans circulated air, they also supplied oxygen to the fire. By the time mine supervisors realized it was out of control, evacuating the miners wa......more

Goodreads review by Alicia

Walker spins a riveting tale about a disaster that occurred at the Cherry Mine in Cherry, Illinois- a town that sprouted up overnight around the mines in which the drudgery of coal mining was offset by the money made by the dangerous work the men (and boys) did day in and day out. As the European im......more

Goodreads review by Dan

I have read several articles about the Cherry Coal Mine Disaster during the time it happened. I read Black Damp many years ago and also read Trapped which was basically a photo essay about the disaster. Sally M. Walker brings the event to life telling the story through the eyes of people who existed......more


Quotes

The narrative is enriched with numerous photographs, maps, diagrams, and primary source documents. . . . This examination of a man-made disaster works well as a historical recount, harrowing survival story, and social commentary. A very strong addition to nonfiction collections.