GREAT WESTERN. Rhondda, Glamorganshire. 11th. April, 1893.
(The Fire)

The fire appeared to have been discovered by a boy, Edwin Matthews, who went down the Hetty Pit at about 1.30 p.m. to work with a collier on the afternoon shift in the Four Feet Seam. When he was passing up the East Hard Heading, he noticed something on fire below the engine, called to the engineman and ran back towards the Hetty Pit. A journey of trams was being hauled up the East Main Dip and George James, the engineman, stopped the engine, came down the roadway and saw one of the beams on the fire. He and the rider of the journey, John H. Thomas, who had run out to see what the matter was, tried to put out the fire by beating it but they failed to do so. They then tried to get water from the tap but there was not water in the pipe. In a few minutes they were joined by some men who came from the shaft and directly afterwards by David Reeds, the undermanager who happened to be near the Hetty Pit bottom when the alarm was raised. The pipe carrying water to the spray had been broken by the engineman trying to get some water but the pipe was empty. Some of the men were carrying buckets from the cistern in the stables in the Six Feet Level at the bottom of the East Heading. The fire was now being spread inwards and caught the timbers supporting the roadway at the top of the East Main Dip and the entrance to the Four Feet East Level.

The first intimation that there was something wrong reached the Tymawr Pit a little before 2 p.m. when John Cannon, the hitcher in the Five Feet Seam, heard someone crying from the Four Feet Seam above, “Let’s have the carriage, quick.” He went up with the next cage and sent three cage loads of men to the surface. He went up with the fourth cage load. Three or four more cage loads were raised from the Four Feet and the last one brought up one man, William Fletcher. While these men were being raised, one man, Jesse Titley, probably owing to his exhausted condition, or the difficulty of seeing the cage in the smoke, fell down the shaft and was killed.

Four other men had managed to reach the landing at Tymawr Shaft but were too exhausted to get through the wooden fence protecting the entrance. Several attempts were made by some of those who escaped and others but the state of the atmosphere was such that they could not be rescued alive.

The speed of the ventilation fan at the Tymawr Pit had unfortunately been increased soon after it became known at the surface that something was wrong. This was done in the excitement of the moment and in the belief that an explosion had occurred. The greater quantity of air fanned the flames and carried the smoke more quickly into the Four Feet East workings. Mr. James, the manager, arrived at the scene of the fire and soon decided that the proper course was to reduce the speed of the fan. He was of the state of affairs at the Four Foot Landing in the Tymawr Pit and he thought that all the men in East District had been able to reach the landing. He sanctioned the stopping of the fan there and the lifting of the top covers off the pit with the object of turning the shaft into a downcast and getting fresh air to the landing to help with the rescue of the men who were there.

The fan was stopped between 3.15 and 4 p.m. and during this time the bodies of four men who had died at the landing were brought up but no more came out alive by that road nor cold any sign of life be seen for abut 100 yards inwards which was the distance which Mr. Jones, the surveyor was able to see. The fan was then run at half speed. The manager then attempted to reach the East Main Dip working by way of the return airway. This proved impossible due to thick smoke. About 4.15 p.m. Mr. Bramwell arrived and descended the pit and joined Mr. James, the manager. Soon after steps were taken to increase the supply of water from the shaft to the fire and supplement the supply of water from the stables and the sump which was being used to fight the fire.

On the day of the accident Mr. Robson, the Inspector was at a colliery near Merthyr and went to the Great Western Colliery when he returned home at 9 p.m. and heard that he was required. Mr. J. Mancel Sims, the assistant Inspector arrived at the colliery at 8.45 p.m. and another Assistant Inspector, Mr. J.D. Lewis arrived at 12 p.m.. both Mr. Sims and Mr. Lewis went underground and remained at the colliery until Mr. Robson arrived at 10.45 a.m. the following day.

Fortunately the brick arch which formed the air crossing over the Main East Dip, 15 yards beyond the engine helped to stop the spread of the fire down this road and about 6 p.m. the fire had been sufficiently subdued to allow an attempt to reach the workings of the East Main Dip. William Prosser, a fireman and the brother of a fireman in this district, got down as far as the first door, 210 yards down. They opened the door to help the smoke clear away from the dip and stop it from going into the working headings. His light went out and he returned to the engine. Getting another lamp and this time accompanied by Morgan Thomas, overman and Lewis James, fireman, he again went down the dip passing the second door near the top of Sam Cull’s Dip and the third door beyond the first working in the heading. Both doors were found to be open and they reached 78 men including Thomas Rosser. All were gathered together and uninjured about 100 yards up Holbrook’s Heading. They all walked out by the intake and reached the surface about 6.30 a.m.