Page 82 Page 80 Page 80 By Kevin V incent July 19 1938 One of Ontario s busiest and most prolifc gold mines was engaged in a routine day of production Suddenly and inevitably without warning a cavein oc curred that T uesday morning between the 2200 and 2300 levels of Kirkland Lake s Lake Shore Mine It took some twenty minutes for mine ofcials to piece to gether what they thought had happened Calls went out to all corners of the mine Mine rescue teams were immediately dispatched Mine foremen and superintendents joined the efort to try to quickly assess what had happened An airblast followed by a fall of rock The accident was just below the 2200 level Supervisors reviewed the day s Overwhelming stress of waiting to be rescued assignments and determined that four to fve men would be in the area afected by the rock fall In short order rescue personnel determined that three men escaped injury and were completely unafected by the incident They were quickly taken to surface T wo others 36yearold John Greczak and 32 year old John Zagar were unaccounted for As the assessment escala ted a patch of good news it appeared that Greczak and Zagar were uninjured as well but their path to safety was blocked by the massive fall of rock It took less than an hour for rescue personnel to clear enough rock that Zagar was able to be extricated and taken to surface where he was examined taken to hospital and released The job of getting to Greczak was less simple Like any set of frst responders once they knew Greczak was alive and could communicate they set about assuring him that help was at hand Y ou okay one rescuer shouts Y eah Im fne he replied Okay you just sit tight and try to relax were going to get you out of there Relax The word relax was likely rolling through his mind like a freight train Relax John Y oure going to be all right Im not injured he told rescuers Hey John that s great news we just need a bit of time Can you breathe all right Y eah the air s not bad I think Nearly four hours go by Greczak is getting less and less talkative Rescuers hypothesized he was conserving as much air as possible It s eerily quiet from Greczak s position It took anothe r three hours of frantic digging but they broke through The 36yearold was indeed uninjured he was able to walk on his own but the crew carried him out on a stretcher as a pre caution The entire community was elated W ord spread like wildfre that the second miner had been res cued and was alive and well When rescue crews got him to surface the ela tion turned to despair He stood up ready to be accompanied to the hospital for medical exami nation and suddenly collapsed Mine rescuers trained in frst aid immediately tried to resuscitate him There was nothing they could do He died instantly The assumption is that he died of shock from the sevenhour ordeal The Kirkland Lake Miners Memorial is a memorial in Kirkland Lake Ontario dedicated to the city s mining labourers