NORTH MT. LYELL MINE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 94, 16 December 1912, Page 6

NORTH MT. LYELL MINE.

BEFORE THE COMMISSION. (Received 9.15 a.m.) Hobart, December lb. At the North Mount Lyell Commission, a stone miner working at the lUu ft. level testified that it was not possible for the men’s clothes to catch fire when warming their billies in the steel house. Witness was informed by Burns that the pump house was afire. Witness told Grant, the timeueepei, and asked him to get three doctors. Grant replied that he would telephone Murray. Witness said, “Never mind Murray, get the doctors.’ Grant apparently telephoned Murray, reporting the outbreak, and suggesting doctors. This was 11.15 in the morning. Witness thought that if the ordeis hod been given promptly the whole shut could luivo been saved. If there iiad been a man always in attendance at the 700 ft. pumphouse, the lire could have been extinguished. There was no exit from the mine other than the shaft. Witness considered that the men on the other side of the pump house were cut’off from escape. O’Connor, an onginedriver m charge of hoist machinery, said the first message stated that the pump bouse at 700 ft. was on fire. Ho received an order to raise and lower the cage quickly, and they got a message from below: “For God’s sake keep the compression going, or wo will all bo suffocated.”