CASE STUDIES

Case Studies

Case Studies

(1)The Blast in Centralia number 5:

Problem statement

Already the crowd had gathered. Cars clogged the short, black rock road from the highway to the mine, cars bearing curious spectators and relatives and friends of the men entombed. State troopers and deputy sheriffs and the prosecuting attorney came, and officials from the company, the Federal Bureau of Mines, the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals. Ambulances arrived, and doctors and nurses and Red Cross workers and soldiers with stretchers from Scott Field. Mine rescue teams came, and a federal rescue unit, experts burdened with masks and oxygen tanks and other awkward paraphernalia of disaster.

History of the issue

One hundred and eleven men were killed in that explosion. Killed needlessly, for almost everybody concerned had known for months, even years, that the mine was dangerous. Yet nobody had done anything effective about it. Why not? Let us examine the background of the explosion. Let us study the mine and the miners, Joe Bryant and Bill Rower camp and some others, and also the numerous people who might have saved the miners' lives but did not.

Public administration alternatives

Quitting time was rapidly approaching at the No. 5 Coal Mine on that peaceful afternoon of March 25, 1947, when tragedy suddenly struck at 3:27 p.m. The lives of 111 miners were snuffed out by a monstrous explosion. There had been 142 men at work below the surface, and the few who survived were located several thousand feet from the site of the blast. The only discernible effects recalled by the survivors were a slight "whoosh" of cool wind and a low rumbling.( Laura 2005)

Solution/Criteria

The funeral establishments were taxed and often held a single service for several men. A fund of $60,000, made up of donations contributed throughout the ...