Seaham Colliery Explosion

The decision come to at the consultation held on Saturday afternoon by the general committee, consisting of Mr. Bell, Government inspectors, Hall, Lishman, Foster, Corbett, Stratton, Johnson, Armstrong, Ewinson, and Turnbull, was that of building a stopping in the travelling way of the Maudlin seam, and thus suppress what fire there may exist. This was thought to be the most effectual and safest means of meeting the object wished for. Other means could have been tried, but only at the risk of the lives of the officials and workmen employed in carrying them out. There are so many instances in which a sacrifice of life has taken place by a too hasty determination to get into similar dangerous places that it was at once resolved to adopt the means now being carried out. Workmen are at present employed in building three stoppings, one of which is 8ft. high, 8ft. long, and 6ft. thick, and composed of solid brickwork, the others being somewhat smaller. Each will, when finished, be hermetically sealed, there will be a gauge set to show the state of the heat, and two 3-inch pipes will be built from the inner to the outer side. In these there will be plugs which can be removed at will for the purpose of examination being made at any time. All draught being now excluded, the fire will burn itself gradually out. How long it will be before this takes place is not easy to estimate. It may be within a week, or it may be a month or more. After the last explosion in the same pit, and when a like stopping was erected in the same circumstances, seven weeks elapsed before it was taken down. Of course, the bodies remaining in the mine cannot be recovered until the fire is found to have been burnt out and it is safe to venture upon the search. It is to be hoped that it may not be long before the last of the bodies may be recovered.