EXPLOSION IN MINE

Evening Star, Issue 19004, 28 July 1925, Page 5

EXPLOSION IN MINE

TWO MEN KILLED POCKET OF GAS PIERCED Press Association — By Telegraph— Copyright Australian and N.Z. Press Association. SYDNEY, July 27. (Received July 28, at 1.30 a.m.) An explosion in the Metropolitan Colliery at Helensburgh killed two miners named George "West (twenty-five) and Frederick Green (twenty-seven). Jno deceased with seven other miners were working a face, when a. pick penetrated a pocket of gas. The noise ol the gas escaping was heard, and seven other men ran to safety. Cr.ceu n . West remained, and were killed instantly by the ensuing explosion. Jae bodies wore recovered. BOTH VICTIMS MARRIED. EARLIER DISASTER RECALLED. SYDNEY. July 28.' (Recoived July 28, at 11.5 a.m.) Both the victims of the Metropolitan colliery explosion were married men with one child each. Both were recent arrivals from the Old Country. It is the most tragic mining disaster that has occurred on the South Coast for over twenty years. Immediately after the explosion the under-manager and the assistant-man-ager descended the pit with their heads swathed in wet cloths, and recovered the bodies. A horse was also killed. An exactly similar disaster occurred in the same colliery twenty-nine years ago, when three men and a horse wore killed. . Fortunately electric safety lamps were used in the mine, otherwise the catas tropho would have been appalling.