TWENTY – ONE KILLED

Evening Post, Volume 55, Issue 55, 3 September 1923, Page 6

TWENTY - ONE KILLED

FIRE IN SOUTH MAITLAND

COLLIERY^

TERRIBLE STRUGGLE AGAINST

FUMES.'

(UNITED rntSS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIOBI.)

SYDNEY, Ist September.

One of the worst mine disasters in the history of Australia, and the most disastrous which has occurred in the South Maitland field, happened at the Bellbird Colliery, Cessnock, on Saturday afternoon. A fire broke out and cut off thirty-one men from the surface. The news quickly spread, and the pit-mouth was crowded with .. relatives of those imprisoned and volunteers for rescue work. Rescuers entered the mine, and, fighting their way by inches against the fumes, brought out seven men, only two of whom were alive. Soon eight more corpses were brought up. The rescue work has now become very dangerous, 1 dense volumes of smoko pouring from the air shaft, but the number of . volunteers - 16 not diminished, and includes four mining managers, one of whom, John Brown, was overcome by fumes and is believed to be dead, as he had to te abandoned in a tunnel, the man he was working with also being overcome.

After a conference between the managers and the employees, it was unanimously agreed that further attempts at rescue would be futile, as all in the mine must be dead, and the worK of sealing the tunnel Will be pushed on with all haste. Fumes from the five are now being carried into workings, where it is feared the remaining men have taken refuge. There is very little hope of their safety, but there i 6 a faint hope that they got to another part of the workings when they found they were trapped. The only explanation of the disaster is that gas may have penetrated, the bricks sealing off the old •workings and come into contact :with a naked light. These old workings have long been sealed off, but the bricks may have given way. The- mine has never been regarded as gassy or dangerous. : ' ' ' FIRE LIKELY TO LAST SIX MONTHS. .-: Fifty miners in the new tunnel had a narrow escape/and were, only saved by a timely warning and the giving of an alarm, the men- just getting out a 6 the bad air flamed in. The sealing down will not immediately subdue the firo, which is expected to burn for six months. , Thgre were heartrending scenes at/the pit-mouth, where women wanted to view the bodies as they were brought up. Had the disaster occurred, in .the morning, there would have been" four hundred men below. ; The names of the men whose bodies have been recovered are:—W. Griffin, Harold Richards, Phil Roberts, John Morgan, George Sneddon, John Graber, A. Hines, M. Hyams, J. M'Lachlan, ■ Or; Chapman;.,. Fred .... Lambert. Charles Mills, Jack Stewart. ■ ; "' ' The names of the missing are:—John ( Brown ( 3 rescuer), A. Corus, F. Moody, M, Bailey, and W. Hartley, ■; The three men who were'brought up alive and who. are sufferingseverely from poisoning by gas are—R. Wilson, J. Sneddon, and George Noble, an un-der-manager.

[A revised list of names is given in tlie message following.] . •