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Evan Evans who was present when the holes were drilled and charged, described them as follows:

Two opening or sumping holes started in the coal about the centre of the drift 2 feet apart, and were drilled 6 feet inclining downwards and leaving the coal seam and also converging so that the ends of the holes were 9 inches or 1 foot apart; in each of these holes six 4-oz. cartridges of Saxonite were placed. To the right of these holes three holes 5 to 5½ feet deep were also drilled, starting in the coal and in the same line as the course of the drift, and they were each charged with five 4-oz. cartridges; to the left of the opening holes were two holes of similar depth and charge to those on the right. At each top corner of the drift was a hole 4½ to 5 feet deep each charged with six or seven 4-oz. cartridges. He further stated that all the holes were stemmed for 9 inches to a foot with clay. An examination of the face after the explosion proved generally the accuracy of this account. Evans further stated that he was with the shot-firer when he fired the two sumping holes simultaneously, and that having left his watch at the face he returned with the shot-firer to get it after the sumping shots had gone off, and then saw Burns examine the face with his safety lamp and find it clean. Evans then left for the bottom of the drift, and when about half-way down heard the third hole fired. When close to the bottom of the drift the explosion occurred and he was knocked over and rolled up in some of the discarded canvas from the inner gallery. Evans said he saw no flame but felt a little heat. He was not burned.

The face men who had preceded Evans to the drift bottom were busy with the wreck and two of them were killed by violence; they were dead when found, and both appeared to have been killed by fracture of the skull; their bodies showed no signs of burning.

Going back to the time when Evan Evans had left the face and gone down the drift, William Cannon and John Kirkpatrick (two of the injured men) and Joseph Kennedy (who was killed), remained in a refuge hole 125 yards from the face, putting on their discarded upper garments before going down, and here some conversation took place as to which of them should remain at the fan until the next shift came on. While this discussion was proceeding, and after some of the shots had been fired, Burns came back from the face and said the last shot fired had not "got" or done its work, and he made up another charge in their presence and then went back to the face to re-charge the hole and the others left to go to the bottom of the drift.

Thomas Moore, one of the injured men, stated that when he was at the bottom of the drift and after the third report of the shots was heard, he noticed the door in the empty road open about 18 inches or 2 feet, and it did not close again, and when he went to shut it he found it jammed and could not do so, and he further stated that the door was partly open for 5 or 10 minutes before the explosion occurred. William Cannon stated that he remembered seeing the door open but it closed again. Thomas Moore also said that between 9 and 10 a.m. on the day of the explosion, he saw Burns examine the drift for gas about 5 yards out-bye from the fan, and he found some and said, "there is "a bit there Tom." Moore said he had frequently seen gas back from the face when the face itself was clear.

The overman had passed the foot of No. 6 Drift about 1.25 p.m., and then saw there had been a runaway set, and heard the report of a shot in the drift. He went out-bye to a cabin at the turn known as the "friction gear," where there was a telephone to the surface and the two compressed-air engines, one for working the haulage in the Delaval District and the other for the Lowca District, and was there when the explosion occurred. He came out of the cabin, and the air which had been no doubt reversed or checked by the explosion had then resumed its normal course, and was laden with clouds of coal dust, which he thought were due to a fall on the haulage road further out-bye, and he sent a man in that direction to make an examination. Soon after a number of men came out-bye from the direction of the drift without lights. The overman then went at once to the drift.

A riding set was standing on the haulage road at the foot of the drift waiting for the morning shift of hewers and trailers, some of whom were near it at the moment of the explosion and others on their way to it, and a panic ensued amongst these men ; most of them lost their lights, some ran in-bye, others out-bye. The dust raised on the haulage road, principally coal dust, nearly choked some of these persons.

Word was sent to the surface by telephone, and the Manager, who was in the office near the pit top, having just come out of the pit, being summoned, was soon on the spot.

The drift was found to be full of after-damp, the air tubes were nearly all blown down, the canvas sheet across the haulage road was not disturbed, but the door in the brick wall was blown away. No timber was displaced, and there were no falls of roof at the foot of the drift. One empty tub was broken by being forced against a stout prop under a running balk close to the haulage road, and the body of Fitzsimmons was found under it. A short distance up the drift was the empty set intended to be run "against" the runaway tubs; there was first a tram of rails connected to the rope and then three empty tubs, and the rails had been forced through both ends of the tub next the tram on which they were laid.

Kennedy was found mixed up with the tubs above the wooden door.

After removing the bodies of the two men who were killed at the bottom of the drift and seeing to and sending out on stretchers the injured persons (who were attended to by Dr. Harris, who came to the drift), a new sheet was hung across the haulage road and the wooden door replaced by canvas, and preparation made to get up the drift by replacing the air pipes so as to recover the bodies at the face.

Progress was rapid until smoke was encountered, which was driven back by falls of stone, heard taking place further in, and alarmed the explorers, who, fearing a considerable fire and a second explosion, made some preparations 60 yards up the drift to build a brick stopping. Eventually however, at a distance of 140 yards up, a sleeper four inches thick was found to be on fire and near it was some burnt and smouldering brattice cloth, which had probably been first inflamed, and may have been blown out bye some distance while on fire. The fire was extinguished by the application of some water, and no further trouble was experienced from smoke.

Mr. Atkinson tested the air coming through the pipe end at the brick wall two or three times and observed no gas nor was the flame dimmed, but on going beyond the point to which pipes had been removed the air was bad and several of the workmen were affected.

Some yards up the drift a refuge hole was reached in which clothes, etc., were usually kept, and here a locked shot box containing some cartridges of Saxonite was found.

The bodies of the persons who had been near the face were reached about 7.20 p.m. on the day following the explosion. They lay together behind an empty tub which was derailed at the out-bye end. Burns the shot-firer lay between the tub and the right side of the road, his face was next the floor and was covered by his hands. Hanlon and Rowe were lying across the road against the inner end of the tub, and it was observed that Rowe's short trousers were round his ankles. These persons were severely burned, their hair was nearly all singed off and strips of skin were hanging loose. Unfortunately no doctor saw the bodies, but from what Mr. Atkinson and others observed there was a pinkness suggestive of carbonic-oxide poisoning, and the face of Rowe had a singularly placid expression which is characteristic of such cases. The death of a canary in a situation where the lamp flame was hardly affected, and the appearance of the bodies of the victims of the explosion who were next the face, pointed to the presence of carbonic-oxide in the after-damp. When an inflammable or explosive mixture of fire-damp and air in which there is an excess of fire-damp, that is more than 10 per cent. by volume of the mixture, is ignited, it is stated that carbonic-oxide as well as carbonic-acid gas is one of the resultant gases, and this condition (an excess of fire-damp) must apparently have prevailed over some portions of the drift.

An extinguished safety lamp (No. 753) lay on its side near the bodies and a locked circular shot box containing three cartridges of Saxonite was under Hanlon's body.

Two yards nearer the face was the battery lying on its side with the cable uncoupled but the detachable handle still on. An extinguished safety lamp (No. 82 9) lay on its side within a foot of the battery. The cable extended from the battery to the face and was permanently fixed to the balks supporting the roof.

Eight yards from the empty tub was a loaded tub standing on the rails. On the end of the empty tub slight spots of what appeared to be coke were observed, and the general colouring for 100 yards back from the face was perceptibly blacker than further out.

After the last three bodies had been recovered operations were continued until the air pipes were extended to the face, which was reached at 5 a.m. on the 28th, and later in the day Mr. Abbott made an examination of it, and he and Mr. Atkinson made a further examination on December 2nd, and January 6th. As already stated the account given by Evan Evans was substantially correct, and it was observed that no debris had been removed from the shots that had been fired, and no tools were near the face. It was found that the two opening shots had been fired and were successful in dislodging the coal and some of the fire clay. The left side of the left sumping hole could be traced for 3 feet 6 inches; the right side sumping hole could not be traced; the right side of the next hole to the right could he traced for 4 feet and this shot had been successful. The second hole to the right of the sumping holes had been fired and was blown out, no mineral having been dislodged. This hole starting about the middle of the coal seam dipped slightly and contained water. A stick could be introduced into it for a distance of 3 feet 1 inch. There were no wires attached to the cable which extended over a crown to within a few feet of the mouth of the hole. At 16 yards and 18 yards from the face in the line of the blown out shot detonator wires were found stuck into timber facing the hole, and may have been wires from the shots fired.

A rough approximation was made by extending the line of the hole out-bye by a string as to how far from the face the effect of the dipping of the hole, in conjunction with the rise of the drift, would cause the axis of the hole to strike the roof, and it was found to be about 14 yards, the line grazing a prop at 11 yards.

What material had been used as stemming in the blown out hole could not be determined. A stick was inserted into the hole several times and examined, and it was thought that there was some appearance of clay but this was doubtful. The mouth of the blown out hole was not fractured and Mr. Williams, the contractor, expressed the opinion at the inquest that judging from this the hole had probably not been stemmed at all.

The unfired holes were examined. Of the top holes both were stemmed with clay, one to within 1 foot and the other to within 1 foot 6 inches of the mouth.

Of the unfired holes in the coal seam that to the extreme left was stemmed with clay to within a short distance of the mouth. The hole next it was stemmed or contained small coal and coal dust, and an inch or two was raked out and produced at the inquest. It was then suggested that the effect of the explosion might have blown coal debris into the hole, but this. is not probable.

The hole to the extreme right was stemmed to within 2 feet 4 inches of its mouth with clay.

A large supply of surface clay was found at the "dilley" top and near it was a smaller supply.