LYELL DISASTER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1624, 16 December 1912, Page 7

LYELL DISASTER.

FIRE NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY. By ToleErnplL-PMGfI AsiioclftUon-Copyrlglit Hobart, December U, In giving ovidonoo before the North Lyoll Commission, Burns, tho driver of the electric pumps nt tlio. 7(10 and 1000 feet levels, testified Unit nt tlio time the fire broko out ho loft for tlio 1100 feet lovel and returned by tho ongino winze. 'L'hero was no smolto thero. 110 got within ten feci of tlio pinnphouso nml tiicn noticed thick smoke. Ho telephoned to tho hoist tluvl: tho pumphouso was on firo, and tried to telephone to tho lower levels, but got no reply. Eventually ho got tho cuge at tho 700 feet lovel, and several men entered it. Witness thon wont to the 1100 feetlevel, find mot others there, and told them that there wna no chance by. tho shnft, but to try from below. They replied that tho sinoko was just as bad thero. Witness knew of no other exit from tho 700 feet level except tho main shaft. Thore was no fire extinguishing apparatus at tho 700 foot level, not oven a bucket. Ho considered tho causo of tho flro was through some defect in tho electrical installation. Faraday, tho platman at tho 700 feet level, admitted stating that tho men did not'tako tho firo seriously; otherwise tho whole of the shift could have been got out. Tho president asked whether the company would admit that there was only one exit, tho company's counsel replied: "We will prove thero are several." Another witnoss thought tho nren failed to take the fire seriously.