The Colliery Explosion In Northumberland

The whole of the eleven men rescued on Thursday from Seghill pit after the explosion were more or less injured, and three or four of them were in a somewhat critical state when the last advice came from the pit. The men who are suffering the most are Thomas Hogg, Robert Wood, Henry Mills, and William Richardson, all advanced in life. It seems that the pit was worked with the Davy lamp, and the men had the strictest orders not to employ a naked light or to smoke in the workings. The place where the explosion took place is known as the "old flat," beyond the "Californian way." The men who were in there were killed ; but the 11 men and lads who were subsequently rescued alive were some distance from the scene of the explosion, and are suffering from the effects of "stythe," or chokedamp. One of the men rescued states that the explosion "knocked him deaf." "The pit putter lad," one of the rescued men, Rutherford, states, "came back and said, 'Rutherford, she's fired.' We came directly towards the shaft as fast as we could. We got behind the door in the cross cut in the Californian way which leads towards the Burradon workings. We got behind the door when we met the 'stythe.' Me and Weatherburn put some small coal and clay in to stop the stythe coming through the door, and I believe this saved all our lives. About 30 yards off the door we met a little return air which supported us all the time we were in. I did not become insensible until about half-past 8 o'clock, nine hours and a half after the explosion." The working parties during Thursday morning laboured with great energy to reach the men ; but some hours elapsed before the ventilation was restored, and it is a perfect miracle that any of the rescued men had retained life under the circumstances in which they were confined in the pit so many hours. Until tolerably well into the forenoon there was no hope that any of them would be brought to bank alive. In a stable in the "Californian way," not far from where the bodies of the dead men were found, 18 ponies were destroyed by the explosion. The ponies in a stable nearer the shaft were uninjured. The killed are :— Thomas Heaps, hewer, a married man ; Henry Whitehouse, hewer, a young man ; William Taylor, a putter, a young man ; Richard Robinson, shifter, a married man ; John Hand, shifter, a young man ; John Mills, a boy, a timber leader ; and George Jackson, a married man, a timber leader. About 400 men were employed at the pit. The fore-shift men go down to work at 2 o'clock in the morning, and had they been below when the explosion occurred the loss of life would probably have been much greater. A fortnight ago Mr. T. E. Foster and Mr. John Taylor, the well-known mining engineers, inspected the mine, and everything they examined was to their satisfaction, both as regards the ventilation and the general arrangement of the workings, and Campbell, the master-shifter, had made a minute inspection of the workings only three hours previous to the explosion. As is usual on these occasions, there was a large and prompt attendance of medical men at the colliery as soon as it was known that an explosion had taken place, and the viewers, with the pitmen from the neighbouring collieries, also flocked in to be in readiness to proceed to explore the mine in search of the lost men. Mr. Carson, the under-viewer, and the other officials were very active in making their arrangements below for the rescue of the men.