THE BRUNNER DISASTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10644, 13 April 1896, Page 4

THE BRUNNER DISASTER.

EXPERIENCES OF THE RESCUERS, j Mr Graham, of Lytieitoti, has received from hie son, a shunter" at the BrUuuetton railway stat-roir, 8, letter relating his personal experience m the rescue work at the Biunner mine, which has bren placed at the disposal of the Lyttelton Times. Se writes :'— AA fe Boon heard there h-id been an explosion in the mine. The first chance I got I ran over and offered my services, but only practical miners were allowed to go in. The men that were going iv had to be brought out again ou stretchers gasping for breath, the poisonous after-damp was so bad; but again and again they went in, and again and again ware brought out all but dead. Our practical men were ooon kuooked up, and they telegraphed to Blackball | for help. I offered my services again, and this ! time ' i I WAS ACCEPTED ; but I only had to go to the top of the dip, three-quarters of a mile in. We shoved a trolly load of timber in with us. I thought I Bhould have dropped two or three times, but we managed to get out again all right, after discharging our timber. We were in about au hour and a-half, and I was glad to see daylight again.. After getting some hot coffee and losing the effects of the gas, we were called on again, and this time bad to go to the bottom of the pit and help to bring up the dead bodies. | There were six of ua in tho gang. We were each supplied with a Davy lamp,'and a man at the pit's mouth took our uamea, so that if we were missed they would know who we were. Then came the thing that knocked me over more than anything else. As we started into the tunnel all the people' within reach shook hauds with us and bade us " Good-bye." You could see STRONG KBK CSYINU LIKE CHILDREN as they shook hands with one another, the thought being that we might not come out alive. But jthe only thing I thought of was that perha_ps we might save one or two alive, and bring them out to their wivos and children. In we went. AYe passed the gang of mon coming out that we were going to relieve. They had four bodies with them, but our lights were so bad that we could not see who they were. The "dip" is a good deal steeper than Oxford street, Lyttelton. After leaving the top of the dip the trouble commenced. The roof had fallen in, and we hid to chrabsr oyer great stones and lumps of coal for nearly.' another mile before we came to where the issi gang had left off. Then oame the shocking pint of our work. It was a dreadful sight to And men that I had spoken to in fche morning bjraed so as to look like a lnrap of charred wood. It seemed ta me as if it had come on them like a flash of lightning, and most of them had jiufc put up their hands to shield their face, and died instantly. THE FIRST MAM I FOUND had taken a handful of his flannel shirt in his mouth, and' in his agony had torn the piece out. V/e got eight bodies up to the top of the dip, and then we began to feel queer, so we made for the outside ; but we took the, bodies with us. Each one was laid on a trolly and covered with sacks, and then shoved to the mouth of the pit. Just as we got in sight of those outside ws could hear thorn say, '' Here they come again ;" and as we pushed our awful burden between the rows of atixiou3 faces, they would ask, " Is that my man ? " "Is that my boy ? " aud we could not tell, for the most of them were so burned that they could only ba recognised by their socks or their underclothes. I had one ! other turn like this, aud it was all that I could stand. The Back Ball, Hokitika, and Kumara men had arrived ou the scene, so we were not needed; but I am glad that I was able to render some help, small as it was. The last men we found were away from the direct course of the explosion, but they must have all run together. Some had their heads buried in the small coal, as though they had died in agony, gasping for breath. Some seemed to have died quite peacefully. THREE MEN, MEMBERS OF THE SCOTCH CHURCH, were fouud lying together as if they had known what was coming, and had prepared themselves for it; and oue of them had his hmids clasped as if inprajer. His wife, when she was told of I-it, said, " Ah, I know his last prayer was for me." These three were father and eon »nd an ; old frieud of theirs. They had laid themselves down side by side in a corner and waited for i death. That was how it looked to us.

! A YOUTHFUL RESCUER.

The eldest son of the Brunner mine manager, though a youth of 17 only, showed a coolness and courage that won the admiration of all. He !is a mining student, and on the morning of the accident was working with the foreman of the workshops repairing partof the armature ofthe dynamo. " I heard not the faintest sound ofthe explosion," he eaid. "It must have been about 25 minutes past 9 when one of the boys working the trucks at the mouth oE the mine rushed up to us and told the foreman, Mr Thompson, that smoke was coming from the return airway of the mine, and that Mr Thompson was wanted at the mine immediately. AYe all rushed out to the mine mouth, and someone called out that the coal had caught fire. The surfacemen were thero before us, and William Hill shouted that the men's lives wore in danger, calling for volunteers to go iuto the mine. The men drow back for a moment, so Hill and I rau forward, but we had gone ouly a few yards when we met Stevens struggling along with my father on his back. AYe helped to carry father into the office, and laid him down on the floor. I then ran to the telephone and rang up Dr M'Bremrty in GreymouLh, and was delighted to hear him say that hs would start at once. Aud he did so, for 20 minutes afterwards he wss with us. Wheu I went back to tha office father was scarcely breathing, so I told the men to take off his boots and rub his feet and bauds while I used artificial respiration, and after a little he began to breathe more freely. When father was out of danger I got a stretcher and had him carried home by tour men; but though he was breathing he was still unconscious. It was only after he had been put to bed he became conscious and was able to speak, but he could not hear what we said. AYe could not make him understand, aud when the doctor came I hurried back to the mice as fast as I could.. There I saw Thompson, who advised me to send for Mr Scott, at Black Ball, so I sent off a message and went to the mine's month. I could not do anything except organise the rescue parties, so I just kept the names of the men in order to kuow whether they aU returned to the open air after each effort. Mr Liudop came on Friday morning, and at 4 a.m. I went home, slept for two hours, and returned to the mine at 6 o'clock. I shall never forget the sight of those bodies as Icing as I live." Such is young Bishop's simple narrative, but only those who were associated with him at the sctue of the tcagedy know how bis clear-headed management nofc only saved the life of his father, bat helped ia no slight way fco reassure t-he rescue parties as well as the terror-sfcriokeu women aud children.

THE REV. MR DART'S ACCOUNT.

Mr D»rt's account was as follows : —" I was afc Rotten on the day of the accident, and at about 11.30 in the morning I got a telegram— ' Come down. Accident at the mine.' There W3S no train, so I oiled my bicycle and started soon afturwards. Ifc had been raining heavily for several days, ittid the roads wera v«ry bad, bnt I reached B'linuerfcon about 5 o'clock. 1 changed my clothes, and immediately went to the mine. The rescuers had been afc work some hours, and were already very exhausted, for the only men on the spot were the men from the Coolgardie aud Black Ball mines, and as these were nofc nearly as many as tbe work required, the men had short intervals for rest until their turns came. These brave fellows had literally to fight the bad air by inches. They had to put up the brattices as they weufc, so as to divide the drive into two avenues, and through one of these the imre air was forced by the fan, leaving the other passage for the escape of the foul air. All that night we anxiously awaited the arrival,of the Westport meu, bufc they coold not get away, and as the telegraph wires wero down we could nofc get any news. Our own men worked like heroes till the AV'estport miners arrived in a boat they themselves had chartered. I helped all I could by taking timber into tbe drive and seeiug that the men working at the brattices were kept supplied with material. At the end of the level drive we had to help the rescuers up the dip as they were brought out of the mine, and if they were much afftcted by the gas we put them on trollies and took them to the open air. When Heskin's body was discovered, at 8 o'clock on Friday morning, I came out of the mine, for I thought I could then be nvwe useful outside. The Revs. York, Stuart, Spence, and Father Servajoan were there alto, and we arranged a morgue in the screening shed by waliing it in with brattices to prevent the bodies from being scan. They were brought here first, and after each oue had been recognised—a task of some difficulty in many discs—it was carried into the carpenter's shop. Here tho bodies were decently arrayed, put into shells, and sent to the homes to which they belonged. Many of tho widows were very quiet. Some of them took a long look at the bodies, and then walked away in silence.