WHITEHAVEN MINE EXPLOSION.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 14 May 1910, Page 3

WHITEHAVEN MINE EXPLOSION.

RESCUERS' TASK IMPOSSIBLE. [BY ELECTRIC TELEORAI'II-COrYRIOnT.] [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.;] LONDON, May 13. Tiro most experienced rescue parties ait Whitehaven Are still baflled. There was terrible disappointment on thoir returning n,nd reporting that the task was impossible, and that there was little hope of rescue, owing to a walling of flames •and fire. The inspector of Mines lias ordered them to desist for fear of a further explosion. The fire drove the rescuers back and lamps repeatedly exploded and would not live in the atmosphre. ft is believed that one party of sixteen of the entombed men are behind a closed door. Woods, the Shcffielder, who descended the Maypole Mine, bins arrived with special apparatus and has descended into the Whitehaven Pit. Tt was hoped Inst night that he would be able to extinguish the fire. with chemicals, but his success or failure is not yet reported. The latest estimate gives the number of entombed .as 137. HOPE ABANDONED. LONDON*, May 13. (Received This Day, 0.0 a.m.) There is dismay at Whitehaven over the decision to brick up tlfV pit. Considerable time must elapse before it will he possible to recover the bodies.