THE SEAHAM COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3687, 19 October 1880, Page 2

THE SEAHAM COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

* : * / London, September 10. Seaham, where the explosion occurred, liei six, miles to the south of Sunderland, oa the coast, and about ten or twelve from the. county seat of Durham. , It forms an ouUetfor the, immense coal, regioi "of , which Sunderland and J^eweastl«M>n*Tfne are the great central depot*. The locality is known as the central district* .and may be said to form one rait eoai»pit.,:lt is owned principally if not altogether; by the wealthy house of Londonderry.s The coal produced is known in London is- the Wallsend, and is the best elasroMioiue coal used in England. The pit in which the appalling aooident took place it probably the }argest;in the group. , Accounts of the number of men in the Seahw.'eoffier^vsYy; bat 26Ulapnf irere given out on Tuesday night The pit consists, of -.five.,seams, one below the other. /The slulloWMt seam if 4«> — below the surface. The total depthof the colUeryisA^ut^pOyardi'. ffiffioymen in the top •eam.merelj felt rush,'ofi»ir» but oa proceeding to. the; shaft ftmnd it' blocked, up by debris. The air costing ap in the shaftis 1 exceedingly f«liL .'Commuoioatiou fitifjthe top seapwas ppeaed at one o'clock yesteraay afternobn. but because of the damage to the shaft the men could only be hoisted out singly by chains, and reptsl;. jNekrfy, all .of them, therefoW^chose to rjamabin tike pit, so as not to: delay' the explorers' "in clearing a way to the lower, seams, whence knocking and shouting'wire audible. Thirty voorpses, hare been^ .recovered from the Seaham pit up to 9 o'clock this evening; when the searejfr was suspends^ for the nit:ht in eonsequenof of the aoet* mutation of gas>' Ats o'elookthis morning the first of the riotous of the .disaster were taken out' of the nune,, (Before all the bodies oould be rembrediL the fire i again broke out and was not extinguished , before 7 o'clockj.7 One jkundnd and thirty is the lowest estimate^ of [the dead, $ndifc is estimated^tha^ there> wefe 400, .nones and ponies in the mine. 0 TJke Spdiis t taken. out are horribly disfigured. Tbft;Jatest 'official statement places the number:oi killed at 147. <'-•' -v- ..- &w\ ••» ■ *'-• -i* September 11. ' The GbTernment Inspector hai offlcially announced that the number'of dead at Sejlham is close upon 165. ><' ■