GERMAN MINE DISASTER

Grey River Argus, 23 October 1930, Page 5

GERMAN MINE DISASTER

NEARLY 100 DEAD >1 Over Seventy Injured DYNAMITE AT PIT HEAD EXPLODES. (Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) I LONDON. Oct. 21. 1 A disastrous colliery explosion is rc- ! pouted from France. I A message from Aix-la-Chapello ! states that twenty-two miners were killed, thirty injured and several hundreds were, entombed, in an appalling i explosion in a coal mine near Alsdorf, 1 in which two thousand men were work- , ing. The explosion occurred early in the morning. The cause of the disaster was that a stock of dynamite near the pit head detonated through some unknown cause, and wrecked all the administrative buildings, and bottled up the pit leading to the galleries fifteen hundred 1 feet below the surface. There was a second explosion beneath the building, which caused a further loss of life. Two clerks were killed 1 and thirty injured in the building. After some hours communication was established by telephone with the entombed miners, whom relief parties are attempting to reach through a ' neighbouring mine. 1 Hundreds of relatives flocked to the pithead. There were tragic scenes as the bodies were brought to the surface. It was at first officially stated that all the entombed men were safe. 2000 LBS OF DYNAMITE GOES OFF. I 171 CASUALTIES. (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) COLOGNE. Oct. 21. I i The death roll at Altdorf is increas- t ; ed to at least 95 ami 76 have, been inI jured. Many are still entombed and their ■ fate is uncertain. The victims include numerous ollie-1 rials and men employed in the pithead, buildings. A store of 20001bs of dynamite stored to a depth of 1000 feet exploded,, as ihe result of excessive temperatures. .The pithead buildings went skywards, 1 tin* terrific detonation being heard; miles away. Gigantic flames and i : clouds of black smoke arose. Beams,', I pieces of the roof and wall, and win-i • (lows were hurled into the air along with machinery. A 150 feet tower containing the pit cage, wes reduced to debris, from which came cries of the wounded. ' Some of those killed were found 250 ' yards from the scene of the explosion. . A woman clerk was amongst the i slain. Another clerk was burled against aji iron safe and killed. , Rescue operations were not hamper-' ed by gas, but some of those who es- 1 raped state that part of the pit i i; on i I ENGLISH MINE EXPLOSION. ■ FOURTEEN MINERS KILLED. (Aus. and N.Z Cable As«n.) | LONDON, Oct. 9. j A pit pony was the sole survivor of .an -explosion at the Grove. Colliery, near Walsall, Staffordshire, in which an entire shift of 14 miners lost their | lives. ' The night examiner had to meet | the deputy at a centawi point in the workings. When he arrived there he was met by black damp. Then he found a heavy fall of. the roof. The , only living thing he could discover in ' this section of the pit was the pony, I Which had run to the bottom of the . workings. ‘‘Not a hair was left on. the poor creature’s body,’’ he said.