DOBSON EXPLOSION

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 January 1934, Page 5

DOBSON EXPLOSION

TWO MEN UNDERGROUND

FORTUNATE ESCAPE The news that an explosion had occurred at the Dobson mine, about 1.30 o’clock this afternoon, caused alarm throughout the district, many people visualising an upheaval of great magnitude, such as Sccurred in December, 1926, when nine lives were lost. Two men were underground, to-day, when the explosion occurred, but they escaped death, and the news that they were able to walk out of the mine, shortly afterwards, was generally welcomed. The men were:— , W. Dando, married, of Taylorville, a deputy. J. Purton, married, of Dobson, pumpman. The men were engaged in preparing the mine for a resumption of work on Monday next, after the holidays. The latest news from the mine stated that a small explosion occurred at the foot of the drive, and it caused the ventilation fan to stop. Dr. A. W. Wilkinson, who attended to the men, stated that they were not burnt, but were suffering from shock, Purton being the worse. It was not necessary to send them to the hospital.

The two men -were unable to give any explanation as to the cause of the explosion. Experts are of opinion that it occurred in the east section. Other deputies, Messrs. J. Bell and J. Hart, .were at work earlier in the day, but had finished their shift and left the mine before the explosion took place. Mr. C. Hunter, the mine manager, is in the North Island; on holiday. An examining party, headed by the Inspector of Mines (Mr C. J. Strongman) entered the mine later this afternoon, and was still underground when the “Star” went to press.' CZECHO-SLOVAKIAN DISASTER 131 MEN ENTOMBED [BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN. —COPYEIGHT.] PRAGUE, January 3. The Dux colliery explosion shook the houses in the town, and five persons were injured when one building collapsed. A fire in the colliery followed the explosion, which, destroyed the lift shafts, thus cutting off the miners’ escape. A squad of rescuers got into the pit by means, of the ventilating shaft.' Sixteen bodies were then recovered, but the fire then forced the withdrawal of tho rescuers. It is feared that over one hundred and twenty have been entombed. No signals have been heard’ from them. Hope of raising the entombed men has" been . abandoned. It is believed that they must have all been asphyxiated. There is some doubt as to the number of. tho casualties. Tie lowest number given is 132. The disaster is attributed to an explosion le'tber of firedamp or of explosives used in mining. RESCUE OBSTACLES. LONDON, January 4. The British Unifed Press’s Prague correspondent states that a crowd fis waiting, though vainly, at the pithead at Dux, for rescued men. The rescuers have struggled against desperate obstacles. Ten of them were severely injured, or were gassed and' had to be sent to hospital. The ventilation system was almost completely broken down. An auxiliary ventilation system is now being operated. The explosion forced the cage from the pit bottom up to the pithead,' where it. was wrecked. The mine telephone lines were destroyed, so that there remained no possibility of communicating with the entombed miners. Four of the men made a. thrilling escape, by climbing up 'slippery ladders for hundreds of feet to the surface. They were sent to the hospital, having been severely gassed, and being unable to give any account of thei" comrades. The crowds are waiting in a cold drizzle, among them weeping women with little children clutching at their skirts, hoping against hope. The pit was named the Nelson Three Mine after the British sea hero. It is situated at Two Nossegg, near Dux. It was one of the most modern mines, and had been equipped for safety, and despite the fact that it was flooded in the years ISSO, ISS7 and 1892, necessitating heavy capital expenditure each time, before the operations could be resumed.

LATER— The official death roll in the mine disaster has reached 131. The- death roll, owing to the abandonment of rescue work, due to the four mine shafts catching fire through fire-damp, is the worst in a Czechoslovakian mining disaster for many years.