EXPLOSION IN MINE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1932, Page 5

EXPLOSION IN MINE

TWENTY-FOUR DEAD

TRAGIC SCENE IN LANCASHIRE.

(United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph—Copyright)

■i LONDON, November 12

An explosion at the .Edgegi een' Colliery, near Wigan, has resulted in 24 being killed. The explosion occurred at three a.m. when 104 were working, on the night shift. The rescuers were impeded by deadly gas. The- explosion is thieved to he confined to a single pit, in which sev|ral‘ men are emtombed.

There were tragic scenes at the pithead, where a crowd, many of them in night attire, sought news of relatives.

The colliery explosion occurred at the Garwood Hill colliery, near Wigan. There were 103 men in the pit. There are 24 dead, and three are slightly injured. Seventy-two men escaped, or were rescued unhurt. Four men remain unaccounted ,for. The explosion was slight. No fire followed. Teams immediately began rescue operations, their work being

hampered by fire damp. Many were , injured in gas-filled passages extending thflee* quarters of a mile to the pit shaft,

Some of the-bodies were unrecognisable, but were identified by scraps of clothing. Rescuers in' a few instances came ori the corpses of their own relatives. ,

A doctor, descending the jut in his bedroom slippers, worked for hours attending the injured and the gassed until exhausted. The mine manager nearly lost his life dragging a gassed; miner to safety.

The dead include a Methodist preacher, and many men with large families. Sixteen bodies were recovered as the result of an all, day search. Their Majesties have sent a message of sympathy. z ,