The placing of a brick to hold open two doors which were hindering men cleaning up was held in the report, issued last month, by Sir Henry Walker, Chief Inspector of Mines, to be the preliminary factor which led to the explosion at Wharncliffe Colliery, Barnsley, last August. Fifty-seven men were killed and the only surviver died later.
In the judgment of Sir Henry Walker, who conducted the inquiry, one of the crucial parts of the evidence was that two doors separate ing the intake airway on one of the levels from the main return airway were found uninjured ani wide open. The doors were open, he considers, because two men engaged in cieaning up one of the return airways had to take empty tubs thro doors, fill them with rubbish, then return with them, "Apparently the doors were a hindrance to them and they sprayed each of them wide open by putting a brick between the rail and each door. Naturally there was some demur on the part of the representatives of the Yorkshire Mineworkers'
Association in accepting the evidence given on this point, but it was con-
The effect of leaving these doors open was that ventilation reaching one of the levels, went straight into the main return, resuiting in firedamp accumulating in the face, which was reached by little, if any, ventilation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.