3 o'clock in the morning
Cars loaded with mine timbers came from all the near-by collieries . The news of the accident , published in the local evening papers , had brought offers of help from every quarter . Before midnight , officials from the Bureau of Mines were on the scene . At 3 o'clock in the morning , one of the great Rescue Cars maintained by the Bureau rolled into the railroad yards of the colliery . In this car were experts whose principal work was the direction of rescue operations in mining disasters , and the car contained a complete equipment of all the most modern scientific appliances . The first rays of Saturday 's dawn showed the crowd still gathered around the shaft . Owens , hollow-eyed from lack of sleep and from watching , was still directing the operations , but with the advice and assistance of government officials .