The morning call., 1892-12-15
A BURNING MINE.
Fifty Men Imprisoned by
Fire.
STALL HOPE OF RESCUE.
Negligent Inspection Leads to q
Frightful Disaster in One of
the Wigan Coal Pits.
Special to THE MORNING CALL

LONDON, Dec. 14.-There was frightful
explosion this morning in the Banfurlong
colliery at Wigan, supposed to have been
caused by fredamp, and it is believed that
not less than fifty men have lost their lives.
The mine was inspected early this morning
as usual. ana then the men went down to
work in il. Shortly after the last of them
had gone down into the pit there came an
explosion that shook the earth and a cloud
OF smoke shot up from the shaft. OF course
it is Impossible TO say at this time how the
disaster occurred, but it is thought that the
inspection must have been carelessly made
and that the inspector overlooked a great
accumulation of gas somewhere. Certainly
the miners could not have uncovered de-
posit OF gas, as they could hardly have more
than started to work before the disaster
came.
As soon as the explosion was heard,
women and children, the relatives of the
men in the burning depths, came rushing to
the mouth of tho pit. and there was a wall
ing Of agony and weeping and wringing OF
hands such as MOI even the hardest could
look upon unmoyed.
There was another rush, slso-a rush of
volunteers to explore the mine, though fire
had broken out in the mine immediately
after the explosion and it seemed impossible
10 get down TO where the imprisoned m en-
were. In spite of this. however, steps
were taken at once TO ascertain the extent
of the disaster
1t was learned that 100 men were in the
mine when the explosion occurred, and at
noon the rescuers, fighting the smoke and
flames at every step Of the way, had taken
cut twenty, badly burned. AT that time
it looked as though most of the men below
would be taken out safely but the stua-
ton grew worse rapidly.
The reseuers reported that the mine was
on fire in the upper level and that the men
who were still alive were in a lower seam,
imprisoned by the fire that cut them off
from the surface. Under these circum-
stances 1t was, Of course, impossible TO
fiood the mine. bur the air-pumping ap-
paratus was found to be still in working
order, and so long as that was all right
there was hope of rescue.
This hope was doomed to short life
Despite all efforts to extinguish the fire the
flames spread TO the engine-house at the
head Of the air tunnel. This stopped the
pumping Of air into the mine and added
greatly to the peril Of those who were iu
the pit. The FIRE was not subdued until
o'clock this afternoon and some little time
after the bodies of twenty miners were
brought to the surface by rescung parties.
These rescue parties report horrible
scenes In the mine. In the main roads
bodies lie in tYos and threes, as the men
fell. Large sections of the roof of the mine
and galleries collapsed and amid the ruins
were found mangled bodies and half burned
limbs. These ruins blocked many parts of
the mine, and. therefore. the men searching
for bodies were unable to give any definite
idea Of the number OF those lost Several
miners who were just alive when found died
on the way to the surface or shortly after
being taken from the car. The work Of
rescue will be continued through The night,
although there is little hope that any more
men will be taken out alive