Nine Died In Worst Accident In The History Of Tower
(South Wales Echo, 12th April 1962)
Information From South Wales Echo

NIGHTMARE – Malcolm Pearce (top left) recalls the horror of the worst night in the history of Tower Colliery.

The man on the stretcher was William John Maull, aged 61 years, collier, Billy Williams future father in law, William John Maull, commonly known as Jack Maull. At the time of the explosion he has married to Isabel Maull and had a son Alun aged 7, daughter Susan aged 3 ( Billy Williams' wife) and he was living in Maescynon, Hirwaun, Aberdare.

"THE wind came down the Rhigos Mountain yesterday carrying terror along the Aberdare Valley and whispering it in the ears of thousands.
"Explosion, it said. Explosion at Tower Colliery. Nine killed, nine injured."
That was how the South Wales Echo of April 13,1962, recorded the worst disaster in Tower's 75-year history.
They don't write newspaper stories like that any more.
But then, they don't have pit disasters like that any more either.
In those days, men like 19-year-old Malcolm Pearce looked forward to the time when mines and miners would be a thing of the past.
But initial optimism about alternative energy sources faded, and the jobs that were supposed to replace the ones lost in the pits never came.
The 1962 Tower disaster was caused when a spark from a defective cable ignited gas that had built up as a result of a faulty fan. Mr Pearce is now believed to be the only survivor of the 1962 Tower casualties.

NINE men were killed and a further nine injured when disaster struck Tower Colliery in April 1962. Of those nine injured men, Malcolm Pearce, of Merthyr's Gurnos Estate,
is believed to be the only one still alive.
Aged just 19 at the time of the tragedy, Mr Pearce owes his life to a miraculous twist of fate.

'When the nurse pulled my nylon shirt off,
she pulled away half my skin with it'

I REMEMBER everything about the explosion.

In fact, I've probably got total recall on it because it was such a horrendous event.

I was talking to two union officials Dai Morris and Vince Boulton, when, for some reason or another, I sat down on the floor.
That mere act saved my life. When the explosion happened, it threw the other two men against the roof.

Dai Morris was decapitated, he was killed instantly. The other man, Vince, was very seriously injured.

One of my wellies was blown off. I thought my foot was off as well.

The heat was tremendous and I had to cover my face with my hands.

You couldn't see anything. The air was so thick with dust you could only see a few inches.

You couldn't breathe properly because the air was so warm. Any time you breathed, it burned your throat.
I couldn't even put my helmet on because there were lumps all over my head.

Eventually, I found my way up to the conveyor, but I could easily have been gassed on my way out.

The lucky thing about it was that it was such a violent explosion it actually blew itself out.

What happens with some explosions is that coal dust ignites and you get a series of explosions.

The fact that there was just one big explosion probably saved lives.

All the exposed parts of me were burned. I was severely burned in the face and hands and neck.

I had a nylon shirt on when I went into hospital. When the nurse pulled the shirt away, she pulled away half my skin with it. Physically, I recovered well. But mentally, it took years and years. For years I bad nightmares over it. I kept having nightmares about a ball of fire coming towards me. I would wake up in the middle of the night saturated with sweat. That's the side of thing people don't see. All they see is the physical side. It must have been about a year after the explosion before I could go underground again. Before the disaster I'd been an apprentice electrician. But I had to give that up because I couldn't study any more.

I got really disillusioned with the pit over the years. After the 1984 strike I didn't want to go back. I couldn't cope with the capitulation of it.

But I count it a privilege to have worked with some of the men there, men like Tyrone O'SuIlivan who lived and breathed the pit.
The camaraderie and comradeship that goes with being part of the mining community is what makes it special and it's sad that it's finally coming to an end.

It is part of our heritage. As far as you can go back there have been miners and there have been pits. To take that away and say this is the end is tragic.

You always had that closeness in the mines; probably it's because of the inherent dangers that are all around you.

People used to say we should get rid of the mines and miners because it was too dangerous.

It was all right to say that then because there were other jobs to go to. Now there are none.

Information From South Wales Echo