TERRIBLE EXPLOSION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13677, 20 August 1908, Page 5

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION.

SEVENTY-SIX COLLIERS KILLED. ' RESCUERS DRiVEN BACK. Telegraph;-Copyright Received 11.40 p.m., August 19tli. LONDON, August 19. : - An explosion entombed 76 persons in No, 1. Maypole colliery, Abram, near Wigan, destroying the ventilating shaft and cage, and blowing the timber and headgear in. all directions, some. portions for a-distance of 200 feet. - : .'-Clouds of smoke issuing from the shaft are vindications that, the cannel coal in the mine has fired, with great danger of the entombed being suffocated. Repair of the fan house is proceeding rapidly-.'

; A rescue party, meanwhile; .descended at Wigan Junction eollfety,' half a mile distant), which cotnmiinicates with No. 2 Maypble, .arid /several4_hundred jards towards the wrecked workings. On approaching these the air was almost unbreathable, arid heavy falls of roof impeded their -r progress. ■.•■'.■ v v-• Several dead ponies, then three dead miners were found, one body being terribly mutilated. The explorers were 'Tinable to speak with certainty of the con-, dition of the'mine as regards : afterdamp, although fiTemembers of the party suffered therefrom. , ,

; It. was . announced at 3 o'clock this morning tliat./;all<(hop6. had been, aban- ' 7 /;'-- '■">;.' ■;.