A COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 218, 23 December 1910, Page 5

A COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

HUNDREDS OF MIXERS ENTOMBED. FffiE RAGING IN THE MINE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, December 21. Owing to an explosion at Huston colliery, Bolton, Lancashire, the cages : jambed, and the ventilation was seriously interrupted. Two hundred men were entombed; one boy escaped. A later message reports that seven tnen have been rescued, and several dead bodies recovered. A fire is raging in the pit, and it is feared few will be saved. The explosion at the Pretoria pit, Bolton, at eight in the morning, shook the neighborhood, and was heard three miles away. Owing to a fire breaking oat, tile rescuers descended the Arley pit, : adjoining, and found seven men living, and ten dead, after which they were unable to proceed further. Four hundred and forty miners in Arley pit were also rescued. Many were suffering from- gas poisoning. At 11 o'clock canaries were lowered into the Pretoria mine and recovered alive. The rescuers descended with patent helmets, but found tile roofs fallen in. Though unable to reach the scene of the explosion, they succeeded in extinguishing the fire for fifty yards. Three hundred and fifty men are still imprisoned. RESCUERS PERISH IN THE ATTEMPT. A TERRIBLE EXPLOSION. Received 22, 1025 p.m. London, December 22. The explosion wrecked the mine at Big Falls Reef, and the machinery was destroyed.' The explosion was heard five miles away. A pillar of flame shot from the shaft. Rescuers penetrated 200 yards, and recovered ten bodies, mutilated and burned, at the Arley level. Two of the rescuers succumbed to the fumes, one of them in trying to succourbis two sons. Small fires following the explosion have been extinguished. NO HOPE FOR THE REST. EXITS BLOCKED, AND MINERS - ENTRAPPED. PAINFUL SCENES AT THE PIT'S MOUTH. Received 22, 12*20 p.m. London, December 22. The presence of afterdamp destroys the hope that any are alive in the mine. The fury of the explosion swept five, sections, blocking the exits and entrapping the miners. Painful scenes occurred at the pit month, and the crowd is dazed. The Bishop of Manchester, surrounded by weeping women and children, offered up prayer. No electricity or shots wen used in the mine, and the explosion is supposed to have been caused by a match or a defective lamp. The rescuers discovered forty corpses, and . brought them to the surface during the night. The King telegraphed his sympathy.