SERIOUS EXPLOSION AT A COLLIERY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 116, 16 May 1878, Page 4

SERIOUS EXPLOSION AT A COLLIERY.

FORTY LIVES LOST. On Tue?dary afternoon, 13th Mftrch, fin explosion of a most lamentable charac.tfT occurred nt the colliery of Messrs B. Sff-tt & Co., Kprsl-y, nbout four rni'es on the Manchester side of B >lion Ti e folli* ry is know as the Union Brcok Pit,

Shortly a'fer ono o'clock, the men working on the pit-bunk heard a lomi reporf, which waa immediately followed by a t\en 3n vninmo of em kp proceeding from the mouth of the abaft, and it we nt n.npp concluded that, b serious explosion had taken place in the woikinps below. Wlipo the Pinoke ami dust had cleared away it was seen thai the ppfiring at the mouth 01 the shaft was broken, and that one of the c.ges h»d disappeared, having evidently fallen to the bottom. Tho shaft is about 300 yards deep. The Troncherboue Mine is sorno 240 yards below the surface, and beneath that is the cannel mine in which the explosion took place. Tho cannel coh! workings Imvo only been recently started upon, aad up Jo thin present have be*u carried some 300 yards from the shnft. An alarta was immediately raised by the men on the pit-bank, and messengers were despatched for medical assistance, as it was considered certain that the consequences wouM prove (o be very disastrous. Assistance was soon obtained, and in a comparatively short tirae from (ho lime of the explosion several managers and owners of neighboring collieries were upon the sp?t. As it was know that, there some 70 men and boys in (he workings, no time was 1 st in taking all possible steps to recover them. An examination of the mouth of the shaft showed that tho ropes and the guiding rods were injured to such an extent as to render it impossible to descend until a new rope had beeu provided. As soon as possible fresh ropes were obtained, and a hoppet was lowered as far as the entrance of the Trencherbone Mine. Almost directly afterwards it was pulled up the shaft, and two men named respectively William Morris, of Litrle Lever, and Adam Davenport, and a boy named William Barrett, were safely landed on the pit bank. They were all found to be suffering severely from after-damp and it w&s found impossible to obtain from them any account of what had occurrod in the pit. By this time a number of medical gentlemen resident in the vicinity, had arrived at the scene of the explosion, and at or.cc administered Btimulauts and restoratives to the men and boys as they were brought to the top 5 three at a time, in a hoppet from the Trencherbone Pit. Bayond this point it was found impossible to lower the hoppet into the cnnnel mine seventy yards bdow, inasmuch as owing to the violence of the explosion, which is supposed to have ti.ken place in the caunel oiine, one of the cages had been blown into the bead gearing, and then had fallen between the Trencherboae mouthing and thecunnel mine. As beforestated, efforts were, there/ore, directed to the recovery oj the men in the Trencherbone Mine, and by five o'clock the whole of the men who had been engaged in the mine had been brought to the surface. AH of them were more or less found to be suffering from chokedamp which ascended the shaft from the canuel mine.

By a little after six o'clock an exploring patty, consisting ofMrDickensod, the government iospactor of mines for the district, and other gentlemen, deceuded to the cannel mine in a hoppet, it having been found impossible to use the ordinary machinery. They found the atmosphere so oppressive that th'r-y were unablo to penetrate the workings to a distance of more than 16 yards from the pit eye, and returned to the bottom of the shaft. Here they found the dead body of a young man named Thomas Hilton, 19 ye^rsof age, who was employed as a hooker-oa in the Trencherhone mine. It is supposed that at the time of the exploaiua he had been standing at the mouth of the workings of the mine in which he was employed, and that he bad fallen to the bottom of (he abaft, a distance or seventy yards, aud that he had been killed by the (all Attention was directed to securing freu ventilation ot the mines, and with this object o iurnnce tvae lit at the foot ol the up-cast shalt, which mau-iially impiove* the air in ti e wokiugs ot all the mines, and facilitated iv a {jrrut measure the efforts ot the exploring party. The pita iv the neighboihood are ngarded as fiery in their nature, and as giviug off a great araouutof uas; but us for ihis colliery v has been couaidered as more than ordinarily free from dangerous gaSes; so much bo that fhe colliers have used nakdd candles, and Bhots have been regularly fired. It is believed that to one of these the explosion may be attributed, A shot, it is believed, had dislodged a large quantity of accumulated gas, aad that the gas, coming in contact with a naked light, exploded. The force of the explosion was so severe t.at the banksman, Thomas Worrall, wbo was at the mouth of the downcast shaft, was blown into the air for a considerable distance, and in falling dislocated his hip, and received other injuries. Samuel Haslaw, a boy, who was standing near Worrall at the time, was also somewhat severely hurt by pieces of timber which bad been blown up the shaft falling upon him.

The exploring party returned to the BUrface shortly after eight o'clock, their absence ior bo long a period having caused somewhat serious apprehen-

si'odb for their safety. They reported that they found everything in the mine much Llown about, and that there waa every nppßarance of the explosion having beeu one of very great violence. The ventilation had been much improved by the lighting of the furnace Ht the bottom of the upcast shaft, and the party were cousequently able to 'Xplore, with the exception of two IcvfN, ne»ily the whole of the mine About 100 yards from the pit-eye they came across the first boiy, and proceeding further they found bodies lying 'o the right and left in twos and threes. Of the 16 bodies which they saw many of 'hem were lying in such a position es to iniiitiftte that at the time the explosion occuired the unfortunate miners were lushing to the bottom of the shaft when they were over-powered by the gas. Some of them had evidently experienced the full force of the explosion, their heads huviuet been literally blown off' When the exploring p&rty found ;the after-damp too dangerous to proceed further in their examination they endeavoured to attract the attention of any one who tui^ht be living by shouting ; but as no reply was received, it was concluded that all who had been working in the mine at the time of explosion were dead. It was impossible at the late hour of the night io ascertain the number of men that had lost their lives inasmuch as many of the colliers employed others to assist them in their " takes," and the officials of the coliery were unaware either of the number so engaged, or how many men were working at the time The estimate of the killed, was generally fixed at 35 or 36, but it was considered probable that the number might possibly be nearer 40. Subsequent inquiries Bhow the total number of killed to be