MINE DISASTER.

Shannon News, 26 February 1926, Page 4

MINE DISASTER.

FOUR MEN KILLED. EIGHT OTHERS INJURED. USE OF NAKED LIGHTS. SYDNEY, January 29. The explosion which occurred in the Redhead colliery, about 12 miles from Newcastle, towards the end of last week, was not at first thought to be serious enough to be placed among the great mining disasters of this State. The subsequent deaths of three of the eleven injured, in addition to the miner found dead in the pit, have niade the explosion and its effects much mere grave than at first believed. The explosion occurred in an old working that was being prepared for renewed mining, and was believed to have* been caused by a naked light coming into contact with a pocket of gas. Th e Redhead Colliery had been classed as a "safe" mine, and consequently the use of naked lights was officially permitted. This disaster is likely to re-ppen the question of whether all coal minei should not be equipped with electric lighting. The Minister of Mines in the present State Labour Administration (Mr.. Baddeley) is a former Newcastle miner himself. He knows mining conditions thoroughly. He is at present in negotiation with the mine owners for the voluntary installation of electric light in all collieries, but if the owners do not agree to this, Mr. Baddeley will prpbably force their hands by legislation. Interest is lent to this aspect by the fact that the Royal (Commission has been investigating the safety and conditions of coal mines for nearly at year and Mr. Baddeley will probably have itfc report handed to him within a short period. Rescue in Inky Blackness. The first news of the Redhead explosion was received at the pit-top by a telephone message from a 16-year-old youth at the 240 ft level to the mine manager,, telling him that an explosion had occurred, and asking him to come down. The mine manager at once organised a rescue party, and descended to the affected level, where they found everything in inky blackness** as the explosion had extinguished all lights. Aided only by the glimmer of their safety lamps the members pf the rescue party groped their way to the seat of the explosion. With splendid energy, they carried the injured men a mile and a quarter along the main drive to the cage shaft. Not until they bad regained the surface was it found that one of the shift working in the mine at the time of the explosion was missing. Again a descent was made, and search revealed the body of the missing man. *- Young Pony 'Drive*. The most graphic description of the disaster was given by a At l6 " year : oia, pony driver named Alexander Heaney. Just before the explosion occurred Heaney was driving his pony and skip down the main roadway when suddenly there was a sound like rushing wind, and the next mstant he wfs knodftd off his fell Into - the bottom of the skip. Blinded by coal dust and with his lamp extinguished, Heaney struggled to his feet and made towards a flat, wide space a few yards up the tunnel. Having relit his lamp, he was about to leave the flat and return to his skip when two men who had been working in the part where the explosion occurred stumbled .him with, their clothing fern to_^j"™

Heaney then assisted the rescue party in tending the injured. The Redhead colliery has been established 40 years, and employs 320 men. Coal is mined from two seams, one 240 feet down and the other 570 feet. By the time the upper seam, wher e the explosion occurred, had been cleared of workmen, the miners working in the bottom seam had, as the result of the termination of their shift, knocked off work, and come to the surface. They then learned for the first time of the explosion which had occurred in the seam above them an hour and a-half before.