The miners found that the row of cottages that served as their homes had been devastated and some of their families killed , seemingly at random . One found his family alive and safe in a makeshift hospital , but another emerged to discover his wife and four children had died . Fifteen @-@ year @-@ old Lillian Clark , working a late shift that night in the town 's boarding house , had been given permission to stay overnight for the first time . She was the only member of her family to survive . Her father was working outside the mine when the slide hit , while her mother and six siblings was buried in their home . All 12 men living at the CPR work camp was killed , but 128 more who was scheduled to move into the camp the day before the slide had not arrived — the train that was supposed to take them there from Morrissey , British Columbia , failed to pick them up . The Spokane Flyer , a passenger train heading west from Lethbridge , was saved by CPR brakeman Sid Choquette , one of two men who rushed across the rock @-@ strewn ground to warn the train that the track had been buried under the slide . Through falling rocks and a dust cloud that impaired his visibility , Choquette ran for 2 kilometres ( 1 @.@ 2 mi ) to warn the oncoming locomotive of the danger . The CPR gave him a letter of commendation and a $ 25 cheque in recognition of his heroism .