The scene at Bowhill Colliery pithead on Sunday, November 1, 1931, when the ten bodies of the miners killed in the underground gas explosion were eventually brought to the surface.
Earlier, as crowds began to gather at the pithead, reports began to circulate of an explosion of some magnitude in No. 1 Pit, about a mile from the shaft bottom, and that a ten-man squad of repairers, engaged in moving a ventilation fan from one section to another, were trapped. Later, a statement issued by Mr. Charles C. Reid, general manager, confirmed that an accident had occurred in the colliery between 11 and 12 o’clock p.m. and that it had involved an explosion of firedamp.
It also stated that a mine rescue team had sadly found the men, but unfortunately they were all dead and that it would be sometime in the early morning before the bodies could be brought to the surface.
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