Page 68 - Joe Nugent, Inspector of Mines, Ret'd

ISSUE : Issue 70

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1996/6/1

will go against the air if the ing up. Let's say there was an over there somewhere and the ai ing this way, the explosion, in get enough feed of oxygen along Visit an Underground Coal Mine Glace Bay N.S. OPEN YEAR ROUND* 849-4522 air IS com- explosion : was coin- order to with the methane, it would go a- gainst the air. It feeds on air. The more air it gets, that's the area, the place (that it's) going. So the explosion that happened at the Num? ber 2 long balance on that day, 6 West, was that it ranged up and down both ways because there was air some of the places and some places were gas.... The explosion was so intense that it took steel cars--the mine cars, there were steel frames around them with steel bump? ers- -but they were shattered to pieces. Horses were killed, horse won't last no time, they die quickly in the carbon mon? oxide. This was some of his experiences when he was going out. He said he crawled over horses that were dead, and men, too. He said, "It's hard to believe that I could get out." He said he owed it all to reading a lot about mine explosions.... In 1917, exploded- Kids have many needs today • child care, swimming lessons, camping, youth sports and more. The YMCA meets those needs with personalized attention. We take kids seriously, helping them to grow in mind, body and spirit, and have fun, too. So if you're really looking for that one special place for kids, then join the YMCA family For Further Information, Call the YMCA 539-7880 399 Charlotte Street • Sydney Number 12 Colliery--the one that was the best producer that they ~ had around the New Waterford area and it was producing ap? proximately a thousand tons of coal a day. A thousand-ton mine at that time was regarded (as) good. Now they take that out in a few hours. And I'm talking about a twenty-four hour peri? od. They had two shifts for working and one shift for get? ting maintenance work done. There wasn't much for mainte? nance work in the type of mines that we had back in 1917 be? cause it was all (room and pil? lar) . What you left today you came back to tomorrow. You didn't have to do any prepara? tions like getting walls ready or getting the machines up. So I started--we have to go back to this--I started working in 1931. I got a job. Jobs were hard to get. Even a pit job. A stupid pit job where anybody could do, you couldn't get them. It was really difficult to get a job. In 1931 I went to work in Number 16 Colliery do? ing all the bull work. And cart? ing timber and carting props and pushing boxes, lugging stone. Everything that you could get. And we got $3.25 a day. So I stayed in Number 16 pit until 1942, when I left 16 mine and I went out to Number 18. First day I went, it was the tenth of November... in 1942. So I started working at the coal because working at the coal would give you more money. If you should shovel more coal 68

Cape Breton's Magazine