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Narrative Of The Explosion.

The explosion occurred at about 2 o'clock in the morning, and it was rather unusual for no one to be at work in the Harvey Seam at this time.

About 1.55 a.m. the banksman on duty, who was in the weigh cabin about six yards from the north pit, saw a flash come out of the shaft with a cloud of dust accompanied by a loud report. The headgear was slightly shaken, and the dust cleared away very quickly. He tried, but found it impossible, to telephone down the pit. The waiter-on at the Brockwell Seam was in the inner cabin about 1.55 a.m. and heard a loud report, and was instantly covered with smoke and dust. Shortly afterwards he was joined by the pumpman, and an examination by them showed that some jackets and a notice board had been blown 30 to 40 yards away. The shaft signals were broken, and it was impossible to communicate with the surface. The dust cleared away in about 15 minutes. The pumpman in the Brockwell Seam corroborated the evidence of the waiter-on, and stated that everything was just as usual until he heard a deafening report and the lights went out and the electric pump at once stopped. He noticed a rush of wind accompanied by a cloud of coal dust and thick smoke. The master-shifter, who was at the time of the explosion in the Brockwell Seam workings, did not notice anything unusual inbye, there was no disturbance there at all. There were 24 men in this seam, all of whom were got out safely. The master-shifter in the Low Main Seam, when about 160 yards from the shaft, heard a heavy "bump," which was followed by a rush of wind and dust. There were ten men at work in this seam, and all were got safely to the surface within three hours of the explosion. According to the switchboard attendant on the surface, the only motor which was at work underground at this time was one working a pump in the Brockwell Seam, but the current was on all the feeder cables, and the three-core single armoured cable in the Harvey Seam for a distance of over two miles to the Eden Way pump was therefore "live" at a pressure of 2,400 volts. A few minutes before 2 a.m. all the pit fuses were blown, and the fault detectors showed there was an "earth" on.