‘Whole place was full of fire’

THE Birmingham Post ran graphic detail from the inquest into the tragedy.

On June 29, 1882, it reported: “Mr Reuben Smallwood mining engineer, who formed one of the exploring party on the morning of the disaster, detailed the efforts made to extinguish the fire and to rescue the imprisoned miners. “He said that when he told the owner of the colliery, the late Mr Dugdale, in the pit that he feared the entombed men could not be reached, Mr Dugdale seemed very distressed, saying, ‘never mind the property, do your best to get the poor fellows out’.

“The witness replied that they would do all that men could to rescue them. Shortly afterwards a terrific explosion took place. It was not like an ordinary explosion, but seemed a fierce whirlwind of fire. The back of his head and ears felt as if someone was shooting at him from a distance.

He was in the act of lying down when the fire reached him. It would be impossible for him to say how far down the fire commenced.

“Most of the men began to pray after the explosion, and one of them stood in the midst of the fire, and told the others it was not too late to pray. At that time the whole place was full of fire, within an inch of the ground, Witness and others managed to get up the shaft.” Another rescuer, Mr Stokes, told the inquest: “The six of use set off round the shaft and I found the air coming from behind us very strong from the shaft and we decided to relight one of the lamps. We had only three lamps between the six. We got a tub to shade us from the wind.

“I thought it was perfectly safe and we started forward and found the roadway quite clear until we got some distance. When we arrived at the top of the incline it was just as if you had drawn a black curtain the smoke was so dense, and it was as straight as if you had cut it with a knife. We went 50 yards very well. “I stooped down and shouted, ‘is there anyone beyond?’ and almost immediately someone shouted, ‘here’. I said to the men who were with me, ‘now I will take the middle, one of you get on my right and the other on my left and the three will follow us.

“We will make a rush for this man. The three must follow behind so that is one falls the other is ready to pick him up and drag him out’.

“I shouted again, ‘you must keep shouting and we will find you’.

“We started off down the road. I do not know how far we went. We went with our heads as low as possible and I found that a foot from the ground the ventilation was good.

“There was at least 11 feet of dense smoke. Indeed it was a regular wall of smoke and we had to keep out heads close enough to the ground.

“I kept shouting again and again and received the same help, here. Here’.”

“After a few yards, I stumbled over Mr Dugdale. I took his right arm and Mr. Marsh took his left arm and Mr. Mottram took the back of his collar of his coat. He lay upon his back upon the floor. I said, ‘pull’, and we dragged him away. We had not gone far when I fell. I got up and we pulled until we had got away from the smoke.”

The inquest concluded the original source of the blaze was a boiler.

The Post reported: “He (Smallwood) was told that there was a fire near the bottom, which had arisen from an engine fixed some 150 yards down. One of the deputies told him he noticed a little fire on the Sunday night, but it was nothing worth mentioning, and he had put it out.

“He also said it was down somewhere near the boiler. Witness thought the accumulation of gas was quite consistent with the belief that the fire originated at the boiler.

“The gas would be generated by the burning coal, and was not from fire-damp.”