Ponthenry Colliery Suffocation – Llanelli – 1924

PONTHENRY, Llanelli, Glamorganshire, 3rd. September, 1924.

The colliery was the property of the Ponthenry Coal Company, Limited and five men lost their lives due to a sudden outburst of gas from a blower in a part of the workings known as 19 East in the Pumpquart Seam of the Glynhyr slant. Mr. George Roblings was the agent and certificated manager of the colliery.

The men who lost their lives were:

• George Buck, aged 48, Labourer, single.
• Samuel Philip Evans, aged 33, Collier, married, with four children.
• William Henry Evans, aged 35, Collier, married, with eight children.
• William David Jenkins, aged 34, Collier, married, with five children.
• Stanley Morris, aged 17, Collier’s Helper, single.

There had been a number of blowers at the colliery; outbursts of fine coal dust and methane gas. In February 1920, William Thomas Williams was killed and Thomas Evans & Edwin James Williams lost their lives in March 1923 in the No.18 East.

A newspaper report (Dundee Courier 5th September 1924)

Five miners lost their lives and two were seriously injured and gassed as a result of being trapped by a “blower” of gas at the coal face at Glynhir Slant, Ponthenry Colliery, near Llanelly.

The victims were:- William David Jenkins (married, with five children); William Henry Evans (married, with eight children) ; Stanley Morris (single); Samuel Evans (married, with four children); and George Buck (single).

Dyn Evans (15), who was seriously injured and gassed, is a son of William Henry Evans, who was killed.

Fortunately, the accident occurred during the night shift,  when there were less than 40 men at work. Over 20 men who were working in the affected area saved their lives by falling on their faces until the main force of the poisonous fumes had blown over.   Many submerged their faces in a stream of running water skirting the side of the plant.

The dead men appear to have had no chance of saving themselves and were probably caught unawares, while within twenty yards/of the coal face, where the blower occurred, the survivors came through what remained of the gas by using their cape as respirators.

Harrowing scenes were witnessed at the colliery surface. Women and children who had retired to bed for the night hastened to the scene without waiting to clothe themselves fully.

This is the third occurrence of a similar nature at the colliery in three years.

At the inquest into the disaster, Mr. John Harris, fireman, who was the sole survivor of the men in the slant and had survived two previous accidents at the colliery, said he was in charge of the bottom workings including Nos. 24 to 27 West Headings, No.19 East Headings and the Main Slant. He was in charge of the afternoon shift of forty-five men who were working in the slant.

He had met the undermanager underground and had received no special instructions about firing shots. He had made an examination between 1.30 and 2.30 p. m. and found a slight blower in No.25 West Heading, forty yards from the slant and six yards from the face. He put up a brattice to dilute the blower at the source. At 3.15 p.m. he found no gas at all and fired shots in No. 19 East at 3.45 p.m. and later some other shots at 6.15 p.m. at the furthest end of the No.25 cross-heading.

When he was just setting off to go to the pit bank, he heard a rumbling noise and detected gas when he arrived at the Main Slant, which was ventilated by compressed air. He remembered going thirty yards before he became unconscious. The oil lamps of the men with him had gone put but they had light from some electric lamps which some of the men carried.

Frank Overfield, a labourer, had just finished emptying a tub of rubbish when he heard a noise like thunder and a great wind which blew the shovel out of his hand. The next he knew he was in the drift, forty yards away. He had worked in the colliery for only nine days and something like this had happened the previous week. He said there was a lot of noise in the coal which lasted for about five minutes but there was no blast of wind. It was said that the coal was soft and there were pockets of gas contained in it which was the cause of the blowers in the seam.

The colliery under manager, Rees Morgan, said that on the day of the disaster, he was in charge of the pit as the manager was away. he went to the Glynhyr Slant at about 2 p.m. and everything was in order. At about 6.45 p.m. he heard something at the bottom of the slant between 21 and 23 and found gas which forced him to crawl on his hands and knees to 17 east where he found some men who were attending a ladder, delirious. They were sent to the surface at once. On the 24th he found some men attending W.D. Jenkins and administering artificial respiration. He searched the workings to make sure that no one was left.

The jury brought in the verdict that:

The five men died due to suffocation by gas. If other fatal accidents of this nature are not to occur, then boring in the soft coal should be straight through to the pockets that held gas and released the gas. We also suggest that longwall working should be carried out as far as is practicable.

REFERENCES
Colliery Guardian, 3rd October 1924, p.875.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

*A researcher has suggested that the following names that appeared in Ian’s original document are incorrect and supplied the names above. The incorrect names are: Samuel Pascoe, Isaac James, Timothy Jones, William David, and Peter Williams.