Disasters of the Century | Senghenydd Mine Disaster

Comments · 40

• AM

  @amandabarlow3405 · 2 years ago

  I went to Wales 17 years ago and was told about this mining disaster. It still resonates with me.

  5

• WI

  @will7its · 3 years ago

  My father lived just east of the mines and his father was walking to work for his shift when it blew.  Between the wars and the mines he was really messed up.  He told all his sons if they went to work in the mines he would whip them silly.  None of them did. My dad did a few years in the hospital when he was about 18 for tuberculosis and lost 1/2 a lung. Not sure if it was all the coal dust in the air. My mom said in the 1970's if you hung out laundry, it would turn grey/black. I was there in 1972 and remember some warehouse buildings there, but Its all gone now. Nice video, thanks.

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• GR

  @grahambellman8257 · 2 years ago

  Did the person who made this story try to listen to it? Cut the infuriating music so we can hear what is being said.

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• FI

  @FinnishLapphund · 2 years ago

  Of course Shaw should&apos;ve called the rescue squads at once, but I&apos;ve heard other stories were factory managers did things like e.g. escape up/down stairs while leaving locked exit doors behind them, and taking the keys with them! I mean compared to such behaviour, what Shaw didn&apos;t do at once was very bad, but at least he instead went in to the mine to try to do something about the situation himself. <br>Even IF he had some egoistical motif for doing what/how he did, not mentioned in the video, I&apos;m just thinking that if he hypothetically had taken some other mining equipment, caused more rocks to fall down covering the entrances, and then fled, that would&apos;ve been worse than what he actually did.

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• IV

  @ivannovotny4552 · 3 years ago

  Sad beyond comprehension.

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• KE

  @keithcaldwell7673 · 1 year ago

  My grandfather and his father were both employed at that mine but for some reason they were both at home in caerphilly when it happened

• MA

  @Maven0666 · 3 years ago

  One I haven&apos;t seen.

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• DA

  @davidmills6916 · 11 months ago

  Couple of technical points. The Lancaster and York were in a north south direction and york was south of the lancaster. The mine was a dry mine and damp and dust had nothing to do with the initial methane explosion. The ignited methane would have sent a pressure wave making combustible dust airborne which was than ignited by the trailing fireball from methane explosion. IMHO earlier rescue service arrival would make no difference due to the raging fires preventing any access to the western districts. The victims would have died from the explosions itself, or quickly due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Price of coal cost thousands of lives not just the explosions. My great uncle died in this, his brother and dad worked there but not that shift, my grandfather on other side also worked there but I only have memories of him confined to a chair on oxygen from his late 50&apos;s, suffering agony fighting for breath until he died few years later. COD Emphysema, so NCB did not have to pay compensation. My dad also had emphysema and pneumoconiosis but managed a longer life. &nbsp;This happened to thousands, slow agonising death. Luckily I do not have the levels of dust they had but had the mines remained open, I possibly would have by now.

• TE

  @tessabell12 · 3 years ago

  Very well done.

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• MU

  @murph5290 · 2 years ago

  Disasters in Welsh mines happened all the time, 10 deaths or several hundred, it was a constant risk. English mine barons didn&apos;t care, nor had to. Whether it was mining lime in Ireland, tin in Cornwall or ore on Scotland for the English that the empire was built upon, men and families had no rights, they were born into slavery, the mine owners owned everything. Even to this day mining is a problem in Wales, it&apos;s littered with old unsafe shafts, open cast mines with lethal dust and unstable slag heaps, that Westminster has washed their hands of, these places deserve to be made safe, yet the Welsh again are told it&apos;s their problem.

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• KI

  @Kitty-meow-3000 · 3 months ago

  I live in wales and my school is in senghenydd!

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• BR

  @brendasmurdoch8551 · 3 years ago

  Regulations

  1