Shot Firing In Coal Face

Evidence At Easington Inquiry

Mr. Harold Roberts, Chief Inspector of Mines, resumed his inquiry at Easington colliery, County Durham, yesterday into the pit explosion on May 29, when 83 lives were lost.

Owen Gilmore, a deputy, said that on most occasions miners cutting coal had a flame safety lamp with them. The lamp was usually hung up near the roof. He had seen the roof pressure make metal supports fly out, but had not seen sparks on these occasions. He had seen sparks as supports had been pulled out and as the picks of the coal cutting machines were jibbed into the coal face, but he did not regard these as any more dangerous than the sparks caused by the use of a hand-pick or a man's boot slipping.

Shot-holes had been drilled in the coal-face the night before the explosion and if, as had been stated in evidence, those shots had been fired by the time of the explosion, the miners who lost their lives must have been finding some difficulty on the face.

In reply to Mr. W. L. Miron, for the National Coal Board, Gilmore said that four days before the explosion he had refused to fire a shot in the roof to enable a support to be more easily removed. The shot-hole was drilled, but he did not know what happened to it after that.

Another deputy, John Scurr, said that the day before the explosion conditions at the coal face were good.

The inquiry was adjourned until to-day.