My dear Bennie
Again I was slow to answer, but this time I had a cause. I do not know if you saw it in the papers, but we had a nasty accident here last Sunday. Fire destroyed our rock-house and head-frame and a ship falling into the shaft-collar, killed four miners going up in a bucket. All work has been closed down. They are putting up a temporary head frame and the mining itself will begin in a months time approximately*. We samplers could have gotten on with the work straight away if it wasn't for the fact that the drifts and crossents on the seventh level; where we have to sample - are flooded to a depth of 3.5-4.5 ft. This happened because the power was cut off and the pumps ceased to function. Fifth level is flooded too. It will take them three or four days to pump the water out. The pumping started this morning, I think.
The details of the accident were as follows.
On the day before the accident, on Saturday, two new ships, capacity of 10 men, were placed in position for work and tested successfully. They were drawn up about 50 feet above the shaft collar (i.e. above the level of the ground).
At 2:30 A.M. fire broke out in the rock house which is directly over the shaft. Orders were issued to put beams on the collar shaft so that no rubbish would fall into the shaft. At the same time, the shift-boss underground was notified of the danger by telephone. The latter, knowing that the new ships hanging overhead were supported by the wooden frame on fire, phoned up to have them lowered (i.e. gently lowered onto the beams across the shaft collar). The regular hoistman was absent, and the assistance hoistman, excited by the fire, let the ships go down as fast as the engine would allow. Realizing at once that the ships would break the beams across the shaft-collar if lowered too fast in nervousness, he slammed on the brakes. The cable snapped and the 6 ton ships crashed through the beams and fell to the bottom of the shaft.
Meanwhile, four miners on the eighth level charged towards the bucket to take them up to the third level so that they would walk only some 300ft to the surface. They were forbidden to do so by the Shaft-leader, but while the latter left them to give others orders, they jumped in and began to be hoised to the third level by a small hoist there. Just before they reached the third level, the falling ship crashed on top of them, jammed for a moment, snapped the cable and then let drop the bucket to the bottom of the shaft.
The next morning, one man was brought up in six pieces; in separate powder bags, and there is a half of one still stuck with the ship. They were two slavs and two Finns, none married.
This is pretty awful, and serves to show that "one never knows".
Well, Bennie, accidents will happen but it is better to die than to live a life of fear of death!
I shall write to you again soon.
Your loving
Guigui
*The Levack mine was not re-opened until 1937.
No comments:
Post a Comment