31^st May 1951

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No Hope For 60 Miners

Lord Hyndley's Statement

Lord Hyndley, chairman of the National Coal Board, said on his return to Croydon Airport last evening from a visit to the Easington Colliery, County Durham ; "Although everything has been and was still being done at the pit, there is now no hope of any of the 62 entombed miners being alive. This is the worst pit disaster we have had in the history of the National Coal Board."

With the discovery of two more bodies later, the number of those unaccounted for fell to 60.

From Our Special Correspondent

Easington, May 30

Rescue operations continued throughout to-day at Easington Colliery, where 80 men are now known to have been involved in the disastrous explosion early yesterday morning. It has been possible to recover some of the bodies located earlier by teams pressing farther and farther towards the scene of the explosion. The rescue workers concentrated on advancing beyond that recovery point in the slender hope of finding survivors, because the Whitehaven and Knockshinnoch disasters showed that, where there had been enough fresh air, trapped men could live for two or three days after the explosion.

Mr. E. H. D. Skinner, the chairman of the Durham division of the National Coal Board, announced at 8 p.m. that there was no hope of getting to the scene of the explosion to-night. The rescuers had gone farther along the road approaching it, and were now about 550 yards from its end, beyond which there was a leftward spur leading on another 200 yards. Altogether, therefore, there were 750 yards still to be explored, but before that could be tackled the rescuers were now engaged in establishing a third fresh air base along that roadway and consolidating the air conditions behind them.

So far 20 bodies have been located, of which seven have been brought to the surface, in addition to the body of the rescue officer who died yesterday. Twelve stretcher parties were working in free air up to the second fresh air base and some bodies lay along that road, but it would take time to get them down because of the confused state of the girders and debris over which they had to be lifted. Rescuers were still finding the air contaminated, and if it remained so, further hope of rescuing men alive would more rapidly recede.

Ventilation Problem

Mr. Sam Watson, area secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, added to Mr. Skinner's description of the difficulties of the rescue work. He stated that the stretcher parties were working unprotected behind the advance parties as ventilation was consolidated step by step.

Lord Hyndley, chairman of the National Coal Board, was at the pit early this morning and left in the afternoon for Croydon with Mr. Arthur Horner, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers. Mr. Shinwell, who is member for this Parliamentary division, was also present, and made a donation of £50 to a relief fund to be launched to-morrow by the chairman of the Easington rural district council. Imperial Chemical Industries, Limited, announced that they had contributed £1,000 to the fund. Another fund, sponsored by several Kemsley newspapers, reached £3,000 to-night.

Lord Hyndley praised the work done by organizers, rescue teams, and all who were helping in any way. The machine had worked as well as anyone could expect it to do. He expressed on behalf of the National Coal Board deepest sympathy with the relatives of all who had been killed and those on whom they were still awaiting the final word.