COLLIERY DISASTER IN FRANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7985, 14 March 1906, Page 5

COLLIERY DISASTER IN FRANCE.

HEKOIC DEEDS. Received March 13, 8.21 a.m. PARIS, March 12. M. Leoo, the chief engineer, declares that a Are occurred iu an adjoining pit on Wednesday Walls were omit in order to extinguish the flames, but it is possible that some Assure remained, admitting the products of combustion into the other pits and forming an explosive mixture which came into con tact with the minora naked lights. Fire damp, according to the engineer, was heretofore unknown in the mines.

Batches of men were at work rescuing the victims until the collapse of the was caused the work to be suspended. Many deeds of heroism are reported. One explorer descended the mines fourteen times, bringing a body on each occasion. The fifteenth journey, however, proved fatal, the plucky rescuer succumbing near the foot of the shaft. Of the sixty bodies just recovered, thirty have been identified; the others are unrecognisable. Though signals were heard in one of the galleries yesterday they ceased during the afternoon. It is hoped that a few more will still be rescued alive, as two living horses were found in the vicinity. A great number of corpses, headless and blackened are lying about in heaps, the scene presenting the appearance of a battlefield. One woman lost four sons and all her brothers.

THE FIRE AGAIN RAGING. RESCUERS PERISH, ' Received March 13, 10.49 p.m. PARIS, March 13. The Are Ib again raging in the colliery at Courriere, and operations have "been eusponded. Seventeen rescuers," while engaged in rescue work,*. perished. The Chamber of Deputies has voted £20,000 to the sufferers. The mining companies have sent £B,OOO as a first instalment for relief. The Pope has telegraphed to Bishop Arrais his condolences. English, Welsh and Scottish miners the Lord Mayor of London, and many others, have forwarded messages of sympathy.

WESTPHALIAN MINERS. SENT AT THE INSTANCE OF THE KAISER. PERFORM WONDERFUL WORK. Received March 14, 1.16 a.m. fj PARIS, March 13. The Westphalian miners, sent at the Kaiser's instance, with speoial apparatus, did wonderful work In extricating the dead from some of the galleries at Courriere.