YORKS MINE DISASTER

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 August 1936, Page 7

YORKS MINE DISASTER

FIRE FOLLOWS EXPLOSION

58 MEN ENTOMBED

[BY CABLE —PEESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.)

(Recd. August 7, 11 a.m.). LONDON, August 6.

A terrific fire followed an explosion at the Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery, near Barnsley. It is officially stated that 58 men are entombed, and it. is known that 21 were killed. Rescuers are working heroically to reach the victims, but are hampered by gas and continual falls of rock. Despite the proximity of the fire, the air sweeping through the workings is so cold that the rescuers wrapped themselves in blankets to enable them to continue the efforts. Hundreds of anxious relatives gathered in the rain, at the pithead, praying. A doctor who went down the pit, says there is little hope of any being rescued. Most of the bodies have been I‘outid. Some were killed by the violence of the explosion. Others were in nt it tides suggesting suffocation. INJURED MEN RESCUED.

[BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS]

RUGBY, August 6.

In eonnection with the Wharncliffe (liHister. the injured men have been brought to the surface, but are too seriously hurt to give an account of what happened. One was found threequarters of a mile from where the explosion occurred, and his injuries indicate its terrific force. One of the doctors assisting the rescue parties, which have been cutting their way through falls in the roof, in order to get into the affected area, on returning to the surface said that many bodies found were terribly injured, and these men must have been killed bv the violence of the explosion. The attitudes of others suggested suffocation by gas. Captain Crookshank, Secretary oi Mines, arrived .during the afternoon, at the pithead, where, all day, a crowd of over 2.000 waited anxiously for news from below. The vicar of the parish conducted prayers, this evening. The Prime Minister telegraphed a message of sympathy to the families and friends of those who so tragically lost their lives.