The Harwick Mine disaster was a mining accident on January 25, 1904 in Cheswick, Pennsylvania, some sixteen mi (26 km) east of Pittsburgh in the western part of the state. The blast killed an estimated 179 miners and 2 aid workers. The disaster ranks among the ten worst coal mining disasters in American history. One community especially impacted was the Hungarian community in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Fifty-eight of the members of the First Hungarian Reformed Church of Homestead—a full third of the congregation—died in the explosion.
Coal was mined by compressed-air machine, blasted down with dynamite. Ice accumulation in the air shaft restricted ventilation which caused a buildup of methane gas. At 8:15 am, workers blasted down dynamite which ignited the methane.