The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-18 00:00:00

TERRIBLE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

On Monday night, shortly before eleven o'clock an ex-
plosion of fire-damp occurred in the Dines Colliery in the
Rhondda Valley, by which, it is feared the lives of sixty
workmen have been sacrificed. Dines is one of the oldest
colliery districts in Glamorganshire. Coal Las been worked
there, first by baskets and then by carriages, off and on for
more than a century. The place, itself, ,Itowever, situated a
little more than half-way between Übe market town of
Pontypridd and the Treherbert Railway Terminus, is of com-
paratively moderate growth. The population numbers a
couple of thousand and is entirely dependent upon mining
operations. The following particulars respecting the
disaster are from The Times of Wednesday
- -

"The colliery is the oldest and deepest in the
Rhondda Valley, having been sunk more than
40 years ago by the late Mr. Walter Coffin. It
is now the property of Colonel Hunt. Originally
It was sunk to work the btituminons and semi.
bituminous coals used for cooking and household
purposes; but of late years it has been sunk to the
steam coal measures, of which several seams are now
being wrought. There are two shafts, one abut 360
yards deep, the other 400 yards. They are about a
quarter of a mile apart, the former being used as a
down-cast or in-take for the air, and the latter as the
up-cast or ontlet. Both pits, however, are used as
winding shafts for raising and lowering workman,
coal, and materials. The down-oast shaft is sunk to
what is locally called the 'polka' seam, which is the
famous four-feet smokeless steam coal, and there is a
good travellingroad driven along that seam and com-
municating with the up-cast shaft. The general ventila-
tion of the pit is controlled by a fan erected at the top
of the np-cast shaft. The pit gives employment to
about 400 hands, of whom not quite one-half worked
in the six-feet seam, the remainder being employed in
the four-feet workings connected with the down-cast
shaft. On Monday night, after the colliers had left
their places and the general operations of the day
hands had ceased, the men employed at night in
the repairs of working places, the clearance of
rubbish, and other details necessary to the safe
conduct of operations went down at the usual hour
to the number of 58, besides whom were the two
hitchers working at the bottom of the shaft. In all
there were 60 men and lads in this part of the mine.
At twenty minutes to eleven o'clock, the engineer' John
Burton, heard a crash at the pit's mouth, and going
out saw that the heavy iron cap which diverts the
air through the tunnel into the fan had been blown
up into the pit gearing and fixed there. The
banksmen, William Taylor and William Webber,
had also been blown away from their places, and
directly afterward.; there came the deep reverberation
of an explosion, followed be a cloud of dust and
densely sulphureous vapour. The manager, Mr. Samuel
Hughes, and the overman, Mr. Chubb, were imme-
diately sent for, and meanwhile the engineman ran
back to his engine and made an attempt to raise the
cage, which, however, had become fixed. The tidings
spread rapidly, and within a few hours not only was
the entire population of the village of Dime, gathered
round the ill-fated pit's mouth, but several managers
ot the neighbouring colleries—Mr. Hood, of Llwynypid
Colliery • Mr. Daniel Thomas; Mr. Curnew, of the
Bute; Mr. D. D. Evans, of the Ferndale Colliery,
and others—were present. Owing to the dense
volumes of foul gas ascending the up cast, it
was useless to attempt to get at the unfortunate
men by that means, and exploring parties lost no
time in descending the down-cast shaft and making
their way along the in-take to the up cast. When
they arrived at the point where the air is taken
through the intervening strata from the 4ft. workings
into the 6ft., they found that there had been a
tremendous fall, which completely blocked up the
windway called the 80 yards staple; and, penetrating
further, they found that the doors opening into the
up-cast were blown down, so that the main current
of air was passing from the down cast shaft along that
way directly into the up-cast. 80 yards above the
bottom, leaving all the workings below without
ventilation. The condition of the air below may be
imagined from the remark of one of the exploring
engineers that a man could not put his nose 3im
below the level in the shaft without being suffo-
cated. Whether the fall which happened in so re-
markable a manner directly over the 80 yards' staple
was a cause or a consequence of the explosion is
at present doubtful; but there is a complete absence
of any of the ordinary evidences of a blast having
rushed upwards through that way from the workings
below. All the efforts of the engineers and exploring
parties were directed to the introduction of old tubes
of sufficient size to convey air through to the choked
'staple' into the lower workings. This was not ac-
complished last night and it was not believed that it
could be done for at least another 24 hours. Mr. Wales

the Inspector of the district and the assistant, Mr:
Galloway, arrived in the afternoon and descended into
the workings as far as the blocked-up 'staple.' They
gave small hopes indeed of a single individual being
recovered alive, but though there might be the
barest possibility of some of them retiring into the
remoter workings, where the air would be purer.
There was not much consolation in that they said, be-
cause miners overtaken by an explosion of firedamp
invariably made their way to the pit's mouth if they
could, and if the poor fellows did so in this case, those
who escaped instant death would only be mailing
upon a cruel doom.
" With regard to the Dinas Colliery, it happens to
have been the scene of the first explosion in the
Rhondda Valley some 35 years ago, when 14 lives
were lost. Since that time there has been no great
disaaster there until now. It is a fiery mine, as all the
Welsh steam collieries are, and is worked with looked

asafetylamps." .
Dinas is about fifteen miles, as the crow flies, from
where the dreadful Abercarne catastrophe took place
last year.