FORMER DISASTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 253, 25 September 1939, Page 6

FORMER DISASTER.

OLD EXPLOSION RECALLED. HEAVY DEATH ROLL. An explosion which shook the town was the prelude to the first Huntl.v mine disaster, referred to above, at about 7.30 a.m. on September 12, 1914. Fifty-three miners were below when the explosion took place, but some, escaped, including eleven men

who had groped their way for one and a-quarter miles without lights. The outbreak occurred in Ralph’s colliery. Rescuers were forced back by gaseous fumes. There was a scene of devastation in the mine, where continued efforts were made to reduce or extinguish the fire which occurred. There were pitiful scenes at the pithead. Most of the bodies recovered were terribly burned. Forty-three men perished in the disaster, about half the number of bodies soon being recovered. Others were entombed. Six men were badly injured, and one of these died, so that very few escaped. , The explosion occurred on an offday in the mine, the number , of men employed in/the shaft on ordinary occasions being about 100. Flames and smoke belched from the pit mouth, and the town was soon enveloped in smoke. The shock of the explosion blew a cage from the bottom of the shaft to the top, where galvanised iron sheds were smashed. One of the men rescued was blown back fully 100 feet by the explosion, and other survivors met a terrific blast of foul air which caused them to lie flat on their faces for several minutes.