THE ORIGIN OF THE DISASTER

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 61, 13 March 1906, Page 2

THE ORIGIN OF THE DISASTER

AN HEROK3 RESCUER

HEADLESS AND BLACKENED

CINDERS

(Received March 13, 8.24 a.m.) PARIS, March 12. M. Leon, chief engineer, declares that the fire occurred man adjoining pit on Wednesday. Walls were fouilt in order to extinguish it^ but it is possible that some fissure remained/ admitting products of combustion into other- pits, and forming an explosive mixture which came in contact.with the miners' naked lights. Fire-damp was heretofore unknown. > '

* Batches of men were rescued until falls'suspended the work; V/; «, f- -' Many deeds of heroism are reported. One explorer descended fourteen times, bringing back a body on each' occasion.; At the fifteenth journey he succumbed near the foot of the shaft. Of the'sixty bodies recovered thirty have, been identified; the others are unrecognisable. ' , ,\ Though signals were heard in, one of the: galleries yesterday they, ceased in the afternoon: It is hoped that some few may still be rescued alive,as two living horses were found in the vicinity. ■ A greatnumber of corpses'are headless and-, blackened cinders,; lying iir heaps as though,on:ft battlefield. " ■.. One woman lost her four sons and all her brothers. ,■■■':•■'■. , ( ; The: entire press . express deep sympathy, with the ■•victims, of the disaster:.