Seven Men Killed.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11, 4 May 1914, Page 5

Seven Men Killed.

A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION. IN A BENDIGO MINE. Electric Telegraph—Copi'iii o3,l * [United Press A»hoctat»on.J (Received 9.45 a.m.) Melbourne, May 4. At the Great Extended Hustlers’ mine at Bendigo a scene occurred unparalleled in the history of accidents, m mining in Bendigo. Seven men were killed by the bin sting of a temporary underground magazaine used for the storage of explosives. Several others were affected by the

fumes. The killed were: — Leslie Martin, Matthew Forster, John Campbell, Herbert, Thomas, William Ryan, William Blair, Frederick Chinn. The explosion occurred at ten o’clock last night while the afternoon shift was working. All the killed were at the 1053-foet level. The cause will never he known. It is believed one man visited the magazine and left a lighted candle. The Inspector of Mines visited the scene of the disaster. His opinion is that the men were well away from the end where the explosion occurred. The force of the explosion was so terrific that all the men. were hurled a considerable distance, the bodies being terribly disfigured. The explosion broke the air pipes, and released the compressed air into the mine, which had the effect of driving the suffocating litho-frateur fumes down to the lower levels, where some miners were overcome. These were safely brought to the surface, and are progressing satisfactorily.

The loss .of lives in gold mines is not generally great as compared with coal mines, the most recent case of an accident in a mine other than a coal mine being the Mount Lyell disaster, in which a number of men met their death. In the case of coal mines, however, some great disasters have been recorded in recent years. At the Senghenydd* mine, England, in October last, the death roll was 426. and in the disaster at the Courrieres mine (France) in March 1906, 1230 persons lost their lives. During the past ten years fourteen coal mine disasters have occurred in which the death roll was over a hundred.