14 MINERS DEAD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 11 December 1946, Page 5

14 MINERS DEAD

STILLJVIISSING RESCUE HOPES FADE COLLIERY EXPLOSION (11 a.m.) LONDON. Dec 10. Fourteen of the 15 miners trapped by an explosion in the Lowca colliery, three miles from Whitehaven, have been found dead. There is little hope for the remaining one. It is believed that he is buried beneath the debris and that it will be a while before the body is recovered. The last victims brought out were brothers. Another miner found earlier left a widow and 12 children. Rescue parties which worked throughout the night arc cutting their way through fallen coal and rock and _ are still pressing on. They are now in a gas-filled section of the pit. The water is rising. , , . The explosion wrecked many galleries, damaged the ventilation plant and put the pumps out of action. Rescuers are working in foul air _in masks with rising water washing around their knees. , Two hundred miners were working in all parts of the Lowca colliery when a violent explosion caved in the roof over a wide area in which 39 miners were working. Of these 24 were brought oue, one seriously and two slightly injured. The rest were not hurt. The cause of the explosion has not been ascertained, but the manager of the colliery said that fire damp seemed to have been ignited.