TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Colonist, Volume XVIII, Issue 2038, 19 February 1876, Page 4

TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

LOSS OF 201 LIVES IN THREE DAYS

A TEBHiBtiE explosian occurred on Monday, December 6th, at the Swaithe main colliery, near Barnsley, England. Tt belonged to Mitchell and Co., and is one of the largest in the southern part of Yorkshire. It is joined by underground workings with Edmund's main colliery, where, a dozen years ago, over 300 persons perished. At six o'clock in the morning about 300 men and boy 3 descended and began their daily routine as usual. At half past nine o'olock a terrific explosion occurred. Those who were able rushed to the pit bottom, but the drawingcage was displaced. As coon as possible volunteers were organised to search for the dead and dying and those who had escaped. After being down for some time the volunteers reported about noon that they met with great difficulty. They saw men who were alive, but unconscious. It is ascertained that 160 were killed. All who have been rescued thus far are seriously burned aud injured. Another disaster of a similar character was reported on the same day in a coal mine near Pentyrch, in South Wales. Twelve parsons were killed and ten injured. On December 4th, an explosion occurred in a pit near Tredegar, Monmouthshire, when twenty-two miners lost their lives, and on the previous evening, an explosion took place at a mine at Haigh, near Wigan, when seven lives were sacrificed. These explosions, with the one which occurred nearMons, Brussels, on December 16th, made a melancholy total of 311 lives which were lost by these, in many instances preventable, accidents during the last month of 1875. The usual harassing scenes took place at the mouth of the pits on the recovery of the dead bodies.