TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1082, 19 January 1883, Page 3

TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

i Another of those uioss terrible colliery • explosions, which periodically desolate our • great milling districts, occurred on Novora- , her 7, at Olay Cross, Dei ty,-hire. It took t ! place at the No 2 Spaikh duie pit, Danesmoor Colliery, belonging to. tho Claycross Coal and Iron Company. Fortunately only a comparatively small number of men were in tho nit at the time, fur though 100 men went down the same morning, about half the number came up soon after. Had the full complement of workers been down there would havebcon 300 men in the pit. Scarcely ha I tho men leaving work been drawn up leaving some fifty behind them, when a loud explosion took place. The chair was blown from the bottom of the shaft out of the mouth into the headgear. S i great was thefoiceof the explosion that the sound wis heard at a distance of four miles, and stones, wood, and other materials were thro vn into the air nearly lOOytls, These were followed by a dense cloud of smoko and dirt. The heavy stones and iron forming the pit top were hurled from their seat, and the men who were on the hank at the time were blown a considerable distance and much hurt, one, it is feared being fatally injured. They were immediately conveyed t the hospital. S loud w. » the repoit of the explosion that although the people in that district are not so painfully familiar with the symptoms of underground disaster ns in some other parts, a panic at once arose. Screaming women and children were at the fatal spot within a few minutes. Meanwhile no time had been lost in giving the alarm to the officials, and as all the seven pits of the company, which are about seven miles apart, are connected by telephone, this was rapidly effected. The first to arrive at the pit were the general manager, the engimer, and the superintendent. As usual on such melancholy occasions, there was no lack of brave hearts and ready hands while the officials exerted themselves to the utmost. A formidable obstacle, however, encountered the rescuers at the very outset. Owing to the destruction of the bead gear it was impossible to get into the pit by the ordinary way. The exploring party, which consisted of the underground manager and an organised gang of volunteers descended a a aft a milo distant, and so elite ed the min-. Three men were afrer s ui.e difficulty found alive and conveyed to the bank. Later on two boys, sons of the manager, were tound by their father alive. Many of the volunteers who were first to go down were completely overcome by the firedamp. The scene at the pit’s mouth soon after the explosion was of the most distressing character, as the agonised relations of the missing men waited hour after hour to learn their fate. The pit, which is situated at Danesmoo”, one mile east of the Clay Cross, on the Ercwasb Valley hailway, gives employment to from 250 to 300 hands. It is eousideron a very safe one, .and has been in operation since May 18, 18GS, and since that lime no really serious outbreak of gas has taken place. The lalest intelligence states that there is little doubt but that nearly fifty lives have been sacrificed ; and the cat.asthmps is, without douot, the most serious that has ever occurred in Derbyshire. The above explosion proved to have been much more sedous than was at first supposed. It is now known that 45 lives have been lost, and there is reason to fear that some of ( those rescued may yet succumb to their injuries. The explosion has been traced to a remole and partially unuse 1 por ion of the i W'-rkings, one side of which was regarded , as dangerous, and was visited by the fire- ' trier. The explosion was exceotionally S'-vere ; it hurled blocks of masonry I * weighing two tons for so ■ e distance out of I the mouth of the shaft. The explorers in ] their search were driven back by the im- j pure air in their efforts to get at the bodies.