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Exploration Of The Workings.

As expeditiously as possible, notice of the occurrence was sent to Mr. S. Hare, the Agent, and Mr. J. C. Hall, the Manager of the Colliery, and arrangements were promptly made to withdraw everyone from the workings at Westerton and Leasingthorne Collieries as well as from Auckland Park Colliery. A shift of deputies and repairers had just descended Westerton South Pit when a messenger arrived with orders to withdraw everyone. Five men and a deputy had proceeded about 340 yards into the Harvey Seam before they were overtaken, when they noticed that afterdamp was coming through from Auckland Park.

About eight o'clock a telephone message was received from Mr. Hare, on receipt of which Mr. Nicholson (acting district inspector) proceeded to the colliery, accompanied by Messrs. Clive and Hay (junior inspectors). A descent was made by the upcast shaft, which was undamaged ; in fact, some of the tubs in the vicinity of the shaft remained undisturbed. In the shaft siding, however, both sets of double doors were dismantled and blown outbye towards the shaft. Considerable damage had been done to empty tubs. The iron self-acting doors belonging to the inbye set of doors, to g ether with masonry from an air-crossing, had been blown a distance of over- 20 yards, and one of the nine-inch partition walls against the travelling doors was practically demolished. Just beyond the second set of doors the overman's cabin was wrecked. Almost opposite was a stenton through which passed the electric cable supplying current to the motor working the endless rope haulage near the shaft: This cable had been jammed against one of the partition walls of the self-acting doors and bent outbye. Between this point and the old disused South Way empty tubs were overturned, in one case the box being partly displaced in an outbye direction from the tram. The coals in two full tubs which were off the way were also piled up in the same direction. The master-wasteman's cabin in the immediate vicinity was wrecked. Proceeding inbye along the engine plane it was found that little damage had been done to the empty tubs, but there was a little coked dust on the outbye ends of some of them. A timber tram had the outbye end bulged in the same direction and several stacks of props and planks, which ordinarily would be piled up more or less vertically, were found lying horizontally, Props which remained standing were for some distance inbye uniformly coated with dust, but as the party proceeded further inbye it was observed that the coked dust gradually took the form of thin bands on the outbye side of the props and narrow thick bands on the opposite side. On a tub full of chocks, coked dust was observed on the iron bands on the outbye side. Passing the intake crosscut from the downcast shaft, along which road the electric cable passed to the main haulage road, an examination showed that the force of the explosion had only penetrated a few yards into the 1st North Way, but considerable damage had been done along the crosscut and the whole of the intake airway back to the downcast shaft. At this point the cables entered the Harvey Seam and these were found to have been torn in two by the force of the explosion. The actual damage in the shaft did not extend above the Low Main Seam level. The electric distribution board in the Harvey Seam, close to the downcast shaft, was wrecked, and the fuses had been knocked off (one being broken), but they had not been blown. The shaft stables were a short distance from the main intake and the force of the explosion extended into them, several stalls and the air current regulator being damaged, but none of the 40 ponies were killed, although one died some time after from injuries received from the explosion. Returning to the Main Engine Plane again and proceeding inbye past the 1st North Way End, tubs on both lines of rails were found to have been smashed into all sorts of shapes, in some cases the tub bodies had been forced two feet outbye beyond the trains to which they belonged. Coked dust was again found on the inside of tubs on that part facing outbye. At this point a very heavy and close fall was encountered on top of the smashed tubs forming the set by which the back shift men had been brought out on the previous day. On the outbye ends of several of these tubs there was considerable evidence of coked dust, and also on a broken baulk, not only on the side, but in the fractured end. Beyond this point everything was thickly coated with dust. Standing props were thinly coated with wide bands on the outbye side and thickly coated with narrow bands on the inbye side. Seventy yards from the 1st North Way End an air-crossing had been demolished, the bricks being blown into the return air road. Close by was a prop on which the thin dust bands on the outbye side covered some coked dust. The signs as to force along this portion of the road pointed conclusively to the explosion having taken an outbye direction. From the 1st North Way End to the Drift Way End the distance is 440 yards, and the latter portion had fallen heavily. The work of exploration was not proceeded with any further on the day of the explosion, but subsequent inspections, were made of the road (mostly by means of the return airway then acting as an intake) right through to Westerton South Pit. Owing to the heavy fails on the engine plane it was impossible to travel from the 1st North Way to the Drift Way ends, and advantage was therefore taken to use a stenton on the inbye side of the 1st North Way, and access to the Main return parallel to the Engine Plane was thus obtained. This return was in no way damaged and showed no signs of the result of the explosion up to the Drift Way air crossing, which was demolished. An air current of 4,000 to 5,000 cubic feet per minute was being drawn through from the Auckland Park shaft to the Westerton fan, but owing to afterdamp coming off the Drift Way return, it was not considered advisable to proceed any further inbye at that time. A subsequent analysis of a sample of the air in the Drift Way return taken at that time showed that it contained 0.26 per cent. CO. Two days had to pass before the afterdamp was shown to have been sufficiently carried away to allow of anyone to proceed down the South or Upcast Pit at Westerton to the Harvey level. An examination of the curve at the Drift Way. pointed to the explosion having gone into the Drift Way, two steel girders and a brick coign wall which had been supporting them being blown away from the Main Engine Plane into the Drift Way curve. Telephone wires also bore out this impression, as also did props, rubble, and an oil can which had been blown into a refuge hole. There were, however, several contradictory signs from this point right up to the second curve, notably the bricks which had been built on the running-balks of the air-crossing. The majority of these bricks were on the dip or outbye side of the air-crossing or under the centre, very few being on the opposite side. It was a wood-topped air-crossing, and this portion would naturally offer least resistance to the force of the explosion, and would be the first to collapse, and in doing so may have tilted the brickwork (part of which was in several large masses) into the position in which it was found.

Owing to the Drift Way air-crossing having been demolished by the explosion, as well as many of the Drift Way stoppings, it was not possible to proceed far along this engine plane, but subsequent examinations proved conclusively, in spite of a few cases of contradictory evidence, that the force of the explosion had gone into the Drift Way, and that the explosion had not originated in that district. At the first bend just beyond the air-crossing there were several props, to which the check rail was secured, which appeared to have been moved in opposite directions and had been prevented from springing back into their original positions by the baulks they had supported. These signs were complicated by a fall of roof on the end of the check rail. On many of the props on this road there were very thick deposits of coked dust on the inbye side of the props. There was also on some portions of the road a sooty deposit of an interlacing network character, which had evidently been deposited in a still atmosphere some time after the actual explosion. The props supporting the check rail, at the second curve all pointed clearly to the force of the explosion having passed inbye but between the curve and the landing a drum-sheave had been carried a short distance in an outbye direction. The "drags" in the wheels of the tubs in the landing were all slack and showed that the majority of the tubs had been moved in an inbye direction. The most striking piece of evidence, however — proving the explosion had not come out of the Drift Way — was a full coal tub which had been blown 12 yards inbye and jammed hard and fast between the roof and a bottom canch* which it had mounted. (See Plan No. 4 and Photograph.) This tub was badly damaged and was found at the junction of two roads. A further examination showed that the tub had been turned completely round.

Returning to the Main Engine Plane, the only way of proceeding in the direction of the 3rd North Way was by means of the return airway, which at that time was acting as an intake from Auckland Park to Westerton South Pit. A short distance beyond the Drift Way the Main Engine Plane was heavily fallen, one fall being about 20 yards long, and in some places 5 to 6 feet thick. On passing down a stenton and through a stopping on to the Engine Plane, it was observed that an old tail rope haulage winch gave very unmistakable evidence of the direction taken by the blast. One of the uprights was broken, the winch drum and pinion were disengaged from their bearings, and the chain was blown into the stenton. Proceeding further inbye two heavy balks were found, both a few feet nearer the shaft than when they had supported the roof. A light ladder, which had previously been lying on a pack wall, had been displaced and carried a few yards outbye, while a prop at the side was smashed and bent over a pack in the same direction. Beyond this a long and heavy fall was encountered, estimated at 110 to 120 yards in length, and 3 to 6 feet in thickness. This fall was evidently the result of the explosion, and it was underneath it that a fault on the cable was afterwards located. Still proceeding along the Main Engine Plane in the direction of the 3rd North Way End several cases were met with of props and balks being broken in two, one half remaining in situ and the other portion being carried a few yards outbye. One of the most interesting pieces of evidence of this character was a balk which at one time had been sawn into by the tail rope carried near the roof. This balk had been broken where it had been partly cut through. A great many of the props showed thin broad dust bands on the inbye side, and narrow thick bands on the outbye side. In one case coking was found to have taken place on the outbye side of a prop underneath a narrow thick band of dust, and there was also a narrow thick band of dust on the opposite side. The Engine Plane for a considerable distance showed fewer signs of damage — except for a fall about 50 yards long, followed at a short distance by a smaller fall opposite two stenton ends. In the left side stenton the remains of a door were found blown against a stopping, but on the opposite side in a crosscut stenton the stopping was quite intact. Near these stentons there were several instances of portions of props having been blown a short distance to the outside side of the portions left standing. Such evidences of the direction of force continued up to within a few yards of a joint box J (see Plans Nos. 1 and 4) in the cable. 246 yards to the outbye side of the 3rd North Way end. This joint box was at one time suspected of being a possible cause of the explosion, but, as mentioned in the resume of the possible causes (see p. 8), the box was proved to be intact and in perfect order. Within a few yards, on the inbye side of this joint box the evidences of the direction of force at once changed, all indications pointing most strongly to the explosive force having travelled inbye, in fact, it seemed quite unusual for so much violence to be shown in opposite directions in so short a distance. Close to the joint box there was a stenton in which the stopping remained untouched. Beyond the joint box a roller was found 9 yards further inbye than the frame in which it had been set. A crossing-balk was blown into a refuge hole and a portion of the roughly-built pack was swept into two adjoining ref holes in such a way that it could only have been carried by a force moving inbye, and in both cases the position of the timber left lying against the corner of the refuge holes afforded similar evidence, A little further along the Engine Plane, a stenton end on the right hand side had been bricked out for the purpose of storing barrels of grease, and two girders had been built on the front corners for the suspension of iron doors. The brickwork was considerably demolished and the debris projected inbye, while the girders were found to have been moved inbye for a distance equal to almost their entire length. Just beyond the grease hole there was a stenton which communicated with the air road on the low side of the Engine Plane, and it was thought that "gas" might have been given off from the low side goaf into this airway and then leaked up the stenton on to the Engine Plane. Assuming this to be the case, the final explosion, if there was more than one, most decidedly passed down the stenton from the Engine Plane and all trace of any previous gas explosion was obliterated. The debris of the two stoppings was found blown a considerable distance down the stenton, and the remains of a door had been carried a distance of 60 yards. A few yards beyond this stenton the Bell-cabin was a complete wreck, everything being jumbled together in a chaotic mass. At the 3rd North Way curve unmistakably there was evidence pointing definitely to the direction of the force of the explosion. Three heavy long balks which had supported the roof at the curve were in each case broken in two, and the portions across the straight on part of the road were blown several yards further inbye, leaving the remaining portions. supported by props on the curve side. An examination of the fractures was interesting as showing how the fibre of the wood had given way to the force from outbye, the fracture in the case of balks which were secured at both ends, being quite distinct from the fracture where one end was free to be moved. Sufficient force had passed up the 3rd North Way Engine Plane to destroy the air-crossing at the Main return, but the steel girders forming the sides of the overcast were found to be still in position. Any evidence of force gradually died out along the 3rd North Engine Plane and ceased before reaching the landing. Everything was found to be coated with fine dust. Twenty-two ponies in the 3rd North Way stables, a considerable distance beyond the landing, were found, when reached on the day following the explosion, to have succumbed to the effects of afterdamp. Continuing along the Main Engine Plane from the 3rd North curve towards the North Crosscut, a fall of considerable extent was encountered, and all indications of the direction of force pointed to the blast having passed inbye. Beyond the North Crosscut, all evidence died out over a distance of about 100 yards in the direction of Leasingthorne. Along the North Crosscut, the indications of force gradually became weaker and ceased about half-way between the commencement of the crosscut and the electric pump near Westerton. Sufficient force had passed into the 4th North Engine Plane out of the North Crosscut to demolish the air-crossing, and the tubs standing in this landing gave evidence of having been slightly moved inbye, as the sprags (drags or lockers) in the tubs were all loose. In the 4th North, North Crosscut and on the old Engine Plane towards Leasingthorne the timber was coated with fine coal dust. On the North Crosscut road the explosion probably died out want of coal dust, as owing to the inbye portion of this Engine Plane having become rather low, a bottom canch had been taken up, and consequently in addition to there being part stone dust, no coal dust had been deposited, as coals had not been drawn along the part of the road where the bottom canch had been taken up. In no case was there evidence of force in any of the return airways except in the vicinity of demolished air crossings.

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* A local term for a ledge of stone