Maltby Pit Disaster of 1923
The Explosion
The following official account was given at 9.45 pm on the night of the accident, after a conference attended by Mr. W. B. M. Jackson, Managing Director of the Colliery Company, Mr. Maurice Deacon, another director and the colliery officials:
The explosion occurred at 9.15 a.m. at the stoppings that were being put in 53 S cross road. The force of the explosion was felt at the bottom of 95 S cross gate, where two deputies were working, but these men got clear. The first rescue party found one body a hundred yards in by from the junction of 95 S cross gate on the east plane. All men were then withdrawn from the pit. A second rescue party went down at 6 o clock to-night but owing to falls in the road they could not get into the area where the explosion occurred. From the signs of violence found by the party there can be no hope of anyone being still alive. The second party returned at 8 oclock.
The explosion appeared to be a sequel to, if not the result of gob fires, which caused a cessation of work 16 days previous to the accident. There were 130 men in the mine at the time of the explosion. These men had gone down at 5 o’clock in the morning to resume their work at the stoppings of the gob fires, and they were distributed in parties of various sizes at the different gob holes where fire had occurred. The sentence in the official statement, 'All men were then withdrawn from the pit', refers to the men, about a hundred in number, who were in the pit, but not involved in the accident.
Gob fires are smouldering outbreaks in the heaps of debris with which the gob holes, or worked out places in the coal seam, are filled. They are extremely difficult to quench, and, of course dangerous in fiery mines such as those of the Barnsley Thick Seam. This seam, which dips to the east, was worked at a depth of about 850 yards and the Maitby mine was known to be hot and gassy. The gob fires had been a source of intermittent trouble for several years, and the difficulty had been increasingly costly to deal with since the coal stoppage of 1921.
The fire had developed 16 days before the explosion, and on 13th July it was thought advisable to suspend coal-getting entirely. The management took every possible step to combat the fire and, recognising the interest and concern of the men they agreed to the formation of a consultative committee of coIIiery officials and miners in the South Yorkshiie coalfield to suggest measures for dealing with the outbreak. As the result of an examination of the workings it was decided on July 21st to seal the area affected by the gob fire and to inject inert gas. It was believed that this would be effective, and that an early resumption of coal getting in the mine would be possible. During the week from July 21st to the 29th, it was reported to the consultative committee that work was proceeding satisfactorily and the management asked for a hundred more men to expedite the work on the stoppings round the gob fire area, the request was approved by all concerned, and this accounts for the large number of men who were down the pit in such circumstances.
In the effort to put out the fire, bricks, mortar and sandbags were used to build up the barrier intended to smother the fire. The work consists of erecting walls of sandbags from floor to roof all round the afflected place. The effect of the explosion was to blow these stoppings out and to bring down the roof all round, so fire and gas had free play, and communication was impossible. continued »
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