A FEARFUL HOLOCAUST.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 368, 24 October 1889, Page 3

A FEARFUL HOLOCAUST.

FIBE IN A PIT.

SIXTY-THREE LIVES LOST.

The following was received by last mail:— Edinburgh, September 6.

Sixty-three men and boys have perished bv fire in Mauricewood pit, near Penicuik, Midlothian. Twenty-one bodiee have been recovered. This fire is one of the most disastrous mining calamities that has ever befallen Scotland.

On Thursday morning, sixty-five minere, including a contingent of boys, went down the pit to their usual work, and all but two have perished. Hitherto mining disasters in Scotland have been confined to explosions of fire damp, and these have all been io the west of Scotland, where—as at B antyre and Udstone —there are fiery seams of coal. On the east coast fire damp in any dangerous quantity is a thing unknown, and consequently mining has hitherto been considered exceptionally safe. The present calamity, however, shows that other perils are to be faced, and the disaster of Mauricewood takes rank with the two great tragedies of Blantyre and Udstone in the awful destruction of human life.

ALL THOSE BBMAINING ABB DEAD. On Thursday night the list of dead consisted of four, and there were 1 - fifty-nino entombed. Now there is not the faintest hope of any one in the pit having escaped, except the two men who brought the intelligence of the fire to the surface. The pit belongs to the Shotts Iron Company, and was worked solely as an ironstone pit, but recently a censiderable check was put cn this industry through an interdict having been obtained by certain landed proprietors against the company carrying on chlorine works in connection with the production of the raw material Since that time the ironstone has been conveyed to shoots, and rather more attention has b en directed to the production of coal, though the ironstone was still worked. The coal is of good quality. The mouth of the pit is situated on the top of a hill a short distance from the turnpike road. The shaft descends a distance of eighty fathoms, running in a southerly direction. From the bottom of this shaft is a level extending fifty fathoms, t at the extreme end of which the shaft of Greenlaw pit communicates.

THE LOWEB WOBKISGS. Branching off near the junction of the Greenlaw pit is an incline which descends a seals of about 80 in 100 feet for a distance of 160 fathoms. From the bottom of this incline workings branch off in different directions, right and left, Tha mine has thus no second abaft leading to its utmost depth, as the Greenlaw connection extends only down to the eight fathom level. The coal and iron were conveyed up the incline in butchets running on rails, and tbence up the shaft in the usual cages. The coal sides of the incline were lined with wood, but the roof, which is of ironstone, was bare. It is this wood lining that appears to have taken fire, and that, too, at a point lower than the connection with Greenlaw pit, the consequence being that tha miners who were engaged at a lower level were literally hemmed in and could find no way of escape. THS STORY OF OXB OF THE SURVIVORS. Then ensued a scene which happily is not often witnessed and which is, perhaps, best described in the words of one of the survivors, David Bobb, who was at the deepest part of the workings. He says: * I immediately shouted, 1 Boys, the pit is on firel’ Mitchell and a second boy, named Willie Urquhart, - and the boy Tolmie volunteered to go into the workings to warn the men not far from the bottom of the incline. Two men. Hunter and Wright, were driving the new road, and Tolmie went specially to warn them. Just at that moment I got the bell from the top to send up the carriage. As it was leaving empty I formed a resolution to go with it and jumped in. I had no idea of the serious nature of the fire, and I thought if I could get to the eighty fathom engine-house I might be able to turn the water down upset and extinguish the flames. THE TLAMBS WEBB TOO QUIOK. ' But before I got to the eighty fathom the smoke became so dense that I was almost suffocated. I could see nothing and 1 heard no one. I thought I should never come through it, and at the eighty fathom station, where the carriage halted as usual, all I could do at the top was to yell, ‘ For God’s sake bell away !’ That meant to go on. Fortunately they heard me at the bask, or I should not have been alive to tell the story.’ Fiom the t : me of the alarm till now relays of men have worked at the task of rescue, but without any result. All through last night there was kept up a struggle with the overmastering fumes in putting up brattice work to obtain ventilation. Two or three men were let down the incline in a truck, and besides having to battle with a current of smoke so thick as to obscure all vision, their efforts were rendered almost of no avail by the force of the current itself, which threatened again and again to destroy their work as soon as it had been completed, OFT REPEATED FAILURES. Shift after shift the men would come to the surface with streaming eyes and perspiring faces. Their object was to reach the 80 fathom level, from which it was hoped it might be possible to turn a current to clear the incline. At midnight there were still four or five fathoms to be brattioed before the 80fathom level could be reached. From tha> time the work proceeded at the rate of not more than a fathom per hour. Shift after shift went down, and the men came to the surface in despair at the slow progress they were making. While working on the incline the men about 3 o’clock this morning, came pn ths bodies of John Walker and Hugh McThereon. Both bodies were found in the vicinity of the 80-fathom engine, It was a part of the duties of these men to attend to it, and they seemed to have died at their post. • BOASTED BY HOT AIR. Dr Badger, who examined the bodies on their arrival at the surface states that the corpses were frightfully scorched, not with actual fire, but with the hot air in the pit, the temperature of which is stated to be high enough to melt (lead. The flesh adhered to their clothes, and tha ghastly spectacle was rendered the more hideous by the fact that on endeavouring to move their boots the feet nearly parted from the legs. Shortly after 3 o’clock it was found that in the east sides and roof a large number of props were utilised. A quantity of stuff, however, fell, considerably hindering the operations of the rescurers. After four o’clock information reached the pit head that although six bodies were visible on the west side they could not be approached. ALL DEAD AMD BURNED UP, Qn the east side there is not a man alive. The rescuers made gallant efforts to get at the bodies, but were repulsed by the fire and foul air. By 7 o'clock it was seen that nothing further could be done in the way Of recovering the dead. In the meantime, in consequence of the fire on the east side of the workings and the afterdamp on the west aide, the explorers cannot reach the bodies, although they can see a number From their position it would appear as though they had made a rush almost in a body to get out. One of the rescuers named Anderson ventured too far and had to be carried to the surface in a helpleu condition. September, 7. At Mauricewood Pit, Penicuik, this morning, beyond the slight noise caused by the inonotonous clank of the engines, all was quiet, and where yesterday stood large groups of the relatives and friends of the entombed miners, eagerly clinging to the faint hope that was then held out, only a few, drawn by curiosity, are present. Before dawn six other bodies were brought up, making 37 recovered in all. A copious supply of water is kept on the burning coal, but it is evident that little progress is made in reducing the flames, the fire having got hold of the east side. WOUKIXO UXDEB DIFFICULTIES. The bodies were found lying on an elevated portion of th. working, "U<l the only Way in which they ornid be raised Was by jlaciug them three at *.time iu.s box and leaking, the* alm Mta W tha

mouth of tha incline. As an instance of the difficulty experienced in searching, the rescuing party state that they had to wade through water for fully a quarter of an hour before they cime upon the corpses. At five o'clock in the morning the water was four feet deep, and rising at the rate of three inches an hour. Consequently it was deemed advisable to ceasa searching. At this time the fire on the eastern side was was burning brightly, and the hose that was being played upon it had little effect. NO FURTHER SEARCH FOR SIX WEEKS. Later in the day a consultation of mining experts and the manager of the c diiery was held, at which it was resolved to damp down the mine ; and this having heen done, there will be no further operations probably for six months. It is estimated that there are thirty widows and seventy fatherless children, and that £20,000 will be needed as a relief fund, towards which several of the leading colliery and landed proprietors have already contributed, Shott’s colliery giving £5OO and the Marquis of Lothian £lOO.