A COLLERY DISASTER.

Colonist, Volume XXXII, Issue 5633, 24 October 1889, Page 4

A COLLERY DISASTER.

SIXTY-THEEB LIVES LOST.

.THIRTY WIDOWS AND SEVENTY FATHERLESS CHILDREN.

Sixty- three men and boys have perished by fira io Mauricewood pit, near Penicuik, Midlothian. Twentyuae bodies have been recovered. This fire is one of the most disastrous mining calamities that has ever befallen Scotland. Oa Thursday morning 65 miners, including a contingant of boys, went down the pit to their usual work, and all bnt two have perished. Hitherto mining disasters in Scotland have been confiued to explosions of fire damp, and theae have all been in the west of fccotlaud, wh<;re—as at Blantyre and odstooe—there are fitrv seams of ooal. On the east coast firedamp in any dangerous quantity is a thing unknown, and consequently mining has hitherto been considered exceptionally safe. THE STORY OF ONE OF THE SURVIVORS. Then ensued & scene which happily is not "often witnessed and which is, perhaps, best described in the words of one of the survivors, David Bobb, who waa at the deepest part ot the workings. He says : " I immedia elj sboated,(Boys, the pit is on fire 1 MitobeH and a second boy, namec Willie Urquhart, and the boy Tolmit volunteered to go into the working) to warn the men not far from the boitora of the iodine. Two men Bunter and Wright, were driving th< new road, and Tolmie went specially to warn them. Just at that momen I got the bell from the top to send v\ the men's carriage. As it was leaving empty I formed a resolution to go v; with it and jumped ic. I had no i3e? of the serious na'ure of the fire, aric I thought if I could get to the 8( fathom engine house I might be abl< to turn the wate.' down upset and b< extinguish the flames." 11 But before I got to the 80 fathon the Bmoke became 60 dense that I wai almost suffocated. I could see no'.hinj and I heard no one. I thought [ should never come through will? it and at the 80-fathom station, when the carriage halted as usual, all I couic do at the top waa to yell, ' For God'i sake beli away!' That meant to go on FortunaUly they had heard me at th< bank, or I should not have been alivi to tell the ttory." From the time o the alarm till now relays of men hav< worked at the task of rescue, bu without any result. All through las night there was kept up a struggli with the overmastering fames in put ting up brattice work to obtain venti lation. Two or three men were le down the iodine in a truck, and be sides having to battle with a eurrsn of smoke so thick as to obscure al vision, their efforts were renderd of n< avail by the force of the current itself whioh threatened again and again t< destroy their work as soon as it hat been completed. September 7. At Maurice wood Pit, Penicuick, thii morniug bey ond the slight nois9 cause* by the monotonous clank of the engine ail was quiet, and where yesteruaj stood large groups ot the relatives anc friends of the. entombed miners, eager ]y clinging to u/|he faint hope that wa* then held out, only a few drawn bj cariosity, are present. Before dawn, six other bodies were drawn up, making 27 recovered in all. A copious supply of watei is kept on the burning coal, but it is evident that little progress v made in reducing the flames, the fire having got bold of the eaat aide.' WORKINO UNDER DIFFICULTIES. The bodies were found lying on an elevated portion ot the working, and the only way in, which they could be raised was by placing them three at a time in a box and floating them along on the water to the mouth of the incline. An an instance of the difficulty experienced in searching, the rescuing party state that that they had to wade through water for fully a quarter of au hour before th?y came upon the corpses. At five o'clock in the morning the water was 4ft deep, and was rising at the rate of Sin an hour. Consequently it was deemed advisable to cease searching. At this time the fire on the eastern side was burning brightly, and the hose that was being played upon it had little effect. NO FURTHZK SEARCH FOB SIX WEEKS. Later in the day a consultation^ of mining experts and the manager of th« colliery was held, at which it was resolved to damp down the mine; and this having been done, thera will be no further operations probably for BixweeKa.- It ia estimated that there are SO widows and 70 fatherless children, and that £20,000 will be needed us a relief fund, towards which several of the 1( adiag colliery and landed proprietors have already contributed, Shott'g eoliiery giving £500 and the Marquis of Lofhiao £100.