Colliery Explosion Inquiry Ended

Union Criticism Of Management

The inquiry into the explosion at Easington colliery, County Durham, on May 29, when 83 men lost their lives, was concluded at Easington yesterday after final addresses by Mr. R. Williams, M.P., legal adviser to the National Union of Mineworkers, and by Mr. W. L. Miron, on behalf of the National Coal Board.

Mr. Williams said there was a conflict of evidence on the cause of the explosion, but he submitted that facts on which inferences had been based made it clear that it was due to gas from the long wall face being ignited by sparks from blunt picks on a coal-cutting machine drilling into pyrites. He contended that the management knew, or should have known if they were carrying out their duties diligently, that there was an emission of sparks.

He thought that coal dust was a significant factor and that the attempt to suggest that it was purely a firedamp explosion could be disregarded. Gas had previously been found on the third south face, pyrites were known to be in the seam from top to bottom, the ventilator was defective, the system of roof control was "quite unsuitable," and there was a dust hazard present. In his submission, there were many important points closely related to the explosion in which the management failed in their duties.

"Disquieting features"

Mr. Miron said that "a number of disquieting features" from the point of view of the National Coal Board had been revealed at the inquiry, and it was for the board to take to heart, and urgently apply, some of the lessons learned. The potential danger of sparking was open to argument, but, having regard to the absence of reports of gas in the area, the circumstances of a combination could not be assumed to exist. Pyrites in the seam were only encountered sporadically and were not in any vein or similar formation. He would not suggest what part gas and coal dust played in the explosion, but the weight of evidence suggested that firedamp was the cause.

Evidence of stone-dusting was one of the most serious features of the inquiry. The management had done all they could in the way of dusting, although it was clear that there has been a failure to take samples from every working road in the mine. Measures to be given immediate consideration by the board were that experiments in water infusion schemes must continue and more controlled wet-cutting be introduced. There would be an insistence that picks and cutting machines should be sharp, and the method of caving, as against strip-packing, for roof control would have to be considered.