TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 328, 1 July 1875, Page 3

TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

The Times of May 3rd publishes the following account of a terrible explosion which occurred on the 30th April at the Bunker'shill Colliery, North Staffordshire ;—The mine is not far from the ill-fated Talke Colliery, where so many lives were lost a few years ago, and but a short distance from Bignall-hill Colliery, the scene of a lament able catastrophe last Christmas-eye. The Bunker’s-hill pit has been hitherto remarkably free from accident; not a single explosion has occurred in it since it was opened, twenty years ago; There were about 100 men and boys in the pit yesterday, some 35 of them being at work in the Bft Banbury seam, about 600 yards from the shaft. The explosion occurred in this seam about one o’clock, and the report was heard for miles around. The covering of the shaft regulating the air supply was blown off, and some damage done to the framework. The noise soon attracted persons to the pit bank, and in a short tirrie the place was crowded with people. Exploring parties were directly formed atd began to descend in search of the unhappy tenants of the Banbury seam.

The search for the bodies was carried on without intermission, until 5 o’clock on Saturday morning, by which time forty-one had been brought out of the pits, and, as these appeared by the pit register to represent the whole of the men and boys who had descended on the Friday morning, operations were suspended. In the course of the day, however, inquiries were made for another man, who was missing, and his remains were found in the farther end of the “ dip” in which the accident had occurred. The process of identification was going on all the morning, some of the corpses being so frightfully mutilated by burns as to be utterly beyond identification, except by certain articles of dress or by some personal peculiarity apart from the face. Twenty-one bodies were placed in a large room of the Swan Inn and presented a ghastly spectacle. Most of them appeared to have been killed instantaneously by burning or by the after-damp ; others wore the look of men who had had time to struggle ineffectually with death. Some had, irom the places and positions in which they were found, tried hard to escape, but had lost their way, and, falling over obstructions they could not see in the dark, had been overcome, before they could make another cffoit, by .the after-damp. The manager’s son, Nehemiah Sumner, who had been but a fortnight man it'd, was at the engine at the top of the “ dip ” at the time of the explosion. He was blown with great force among some timbers, and, in addition to being fearfully scorched, was so seriously injured by the collision that his life is despaired of. As already stated, not one of all those in the “ dip ” is alive, and the cause of the accident must be left to be revealed as far as it can be by scientific investigation. Mr Wynne, the Government Inspector, and Mr Gilroy, his assistant, commenced an examination of the pit on Saturday, but some days will elapse before it is completed. There is, however, little doubt that the explosion was caused by the firing of a shot for blasting, and that there was a sudden rush of gas the existence of which had not been suspected. The pit has been always singularly free from gas, for although the “ Banbury coal” is well known to be very gaseous, the ventilation of the pit has been sufficient to prevent it from being mischievous. A miner who gave evidence at the opening of the inquest on Saturday said he had worked in this mine for twenty years and it had alwayshad good ventilation. He had seen no gas whatever, although he had been working in the Banbury seam for five years. This seems to be the general opinion of the pit, and it is supported by the fact of the ventilation being restored within an hour or so of the explosion, notwithstanding its force. The damage done to the mine is found by further examination to be singularly slight, considering the effect of the explosion upon human life. Beyond the blowing away of the fittings of the up-cast shaft above and of “ brattices” below ground, and the tearing up of some of the air roads, the mine is not much the worse for the accident. A few days will suffice to put the workings in order again, although work will not be resumed until after Mr Wynn has concluded his examination. Two of the men killed on Friday only began to work in the pit on the previous day, and one of the lads whose name appears in the fatal list went down two hours before the accident to take the place of another boy who left on account of illness, and thus escaped the fate of his substitute. The village of Talke presented a most melancholy spectacle on Saturday. Nearly all the houses had their windowblinds drawn, and sadness was on the faces of all the villagers who were abroad. The day being wet there were not many visitors from other places In the afternoon the inquest was opened by Mr Booth, the district coroner, but only evidence of identification, to enable the burial warrants to be issued, was taken,