BLACK TERROR

Hokitika Guardian, 3 May 1937, Page 7

BLACK TERROR

COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

MAN’S LIFE SAVED BY ORANGE,

Weeping wives and other bereaved relatives figured in touching scenes when the inquest was opened at Chesterfield recently on nine men who lost their lives in an explosion at the Markham Colliery. They gave evidence identifying the victims. The Chesterfield district coroner, Dr R. A. Msßea, with a jury of men, sat in the colliery recreation hall which was stilly decorated with Christmas bunting. The coroner was accompanied by Mr W. Hall, inspector of mines, Sheffield, and Mr H. Hicken, general secretary of the Derbyshire Miners’ Federation.

Every Effort Made

In adjourning the inquiry to an indefinite date, the coroner remarked that from what he had heard, every effort had been made at this particular pit to try to forestall' an accident such as had happened. The explosion occurred about a mile from the pit shaft at a time when the morning and afternoon men were exchanging shifts. It was heralded by a dull, lumbering roar and a terrific gust of wind. Many miners, who were just finishing their shift, had hairbreadth escapes, and as they came racing from the workings of tragedy they shouted to their mates, “Run for your lives!” They feared that terror of the mine —the deadly black damp—but as soon as they reached comparative safety their immediate thoughts were for their comrades left behind.

Wearing respirators and carrying "anaries, they led rescue teams front Mansfield, Chesterfield and Worksop back to the scene, but when (they reached the spot a fall of rock blocked their way.

Death Trap of Stone

With picks and shovels the rescuers attacked the death-trap of stune, and others,' ready to take their turn, stood in line a mile long from the coal face to the pit bottom. As the dead and injured were dug out they were handed along the human chain to the pit cage, the injured being attended by a doctor before they were brought to the surface. Many graphic stories were told by miners who came out of the pit un scathed. One of the luckiest was Mr H. Smith,- of Duckmanton, who reveale: that he probably owed his escape to stopping on his way to the coal face to eat an orange.

Ambrose Boyd, of Duckmantui, sai that after what lie described as a “bump,” there was a rush of wine which knocked him over like a ninepin “The air,” Boyd declared, “was filled with dust, and 1 could neither secnor hear any of my chums. “After a while I pulled myself to got her and found I was able to walk and in the darkness J managed to go to the pi ; t bottom.