Fourteen-year-old Albert Buckle was staring at death itself. Thick smoke moved toward him. Flames licked at the ceiling. Every second, the heat grew worse. But Albert couldn’t run away from the fire. He was trapped deep underground in the coal mine where he worked. People were starting to panic. “Everyone is going to die!” someone shouted.

It was November 13, 1909. Albert worked at the Cherry Mine—a coal mine about 100 miles from Chicago, Illinois. Nearly 500 miners spent their days in the Cherry Mine. Their job was to dig out coal from deep inside the earth.

But today, disaster had struck. Albert and the other miners were caught in one of the worst coal mine fires in American history.

Where was Albert, and why was he in danger?