COLLIERY DISASTER

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10152, 23 December 1910, Page 5

COLLIERY DISASTER

CABLE NEWS

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.

FIRE (N A LANCASHIRE PIT.

OVER THREE HUNDRED MEN ENTOMBED.

SEVERAL DEAD RECOVERED.

Received December 22, 9 a.m. LONDON, December 21.

An explosion occurred in the Pretoria colliery at tSolton, Lancashire, causing the cages to become jammed and the ventilation seriously interrupted. Two hundred and ninety men are entombed. One boy escaped. A later message reports that seven men were rescued. Several dead have teen recovered. Fire is raging in the pit, and it is feared that few will be saved. The explosion occurred at eight o'clock in the morning. It shook the neighbourhood and was heard for three miles. Owing to the fire, the rescue par* ties descended the Arley pit.adjoining. They found feven living men, and ten dead. They were unable to proceed. Four hundred and forty men in the Arley pit were also rescued. Many were suffering from gas poison. At eleven o'clock canaries were lowered into the Pretoria pit and were recovered alive. Rescuers thereupon descended, wearing patent helmets. They found the roofs fallen, and were unable to reach the scene of the explosion, but extinguished the fire for a distance of fifty yards. r lhree. hundred and fifty miners are still imprisoned.

HARROWING DETAILS.

BODIES MUTILATED AND BURNT. '■. NO HOPES OP RESCUE. PAINFUL SCENES AT PIT MOUTH. r THE CROWD DAZED. Received Last Night, 10.25 o'clock.' LONDON, December 22. The explosion wrecked the mine. There were big falls of reef, and the machinery was destroyed. The report of the explosion was heard five miles away. A pillar of flame shot from the shaft. The rescuers, when they had penetrated 200 yards, recovered ten bodies, mutilated and burnt. At the Arley level, two rescuers succumbed to the fumes. One was trying to succour his two sons. Small fires which followed the explosion have been extinguished. The presenation of after-damp destroys all lopes of any of the men being alive in the mine. The fiery explosion swept five sections <>f the mine, blocking the exits and entrapping the miners. "."'' Painful scenes were witnessed at the. mouth of the pit. The crowd which assembled was dazed. The liiahop of Manchester, sur- ' rounded by weeping women and chil dren, offered up prayers. No electricity or shots were used in the mine. 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 nigh't. His Majesty the King has telegraphed his sympathy with the bereaved ones.