Erection of barricades during mine fires or after explosions

Abstract

Owing to the demand made for copies of this very valuable Miners’ Circular, No. 25, issued by the Bureau oi Mines, Washing ton, U.S.A., the Minister for Mines, New South Wales, Mr. .J. C. L. Fitzpatrick, has approved of this reprint with due and grateful acknowledgments to the Bureau of Mines, Washington, and to the authors, Messrs. J. W. Paul, B. 0. Pickard, and M. W. Von Bernewitz. The mastering of the principles so clearly set out may prove of the greatest service in saving life, should the miners be trapped in the mine by an explosion or by fire, and it is hoped that every person employed in the coal-mining industry will endeavour to make himself thoroughly conversant with the instructions herein contained.

Self-preservation is one of the first laws of nature, and all about us we see evidence of the assertion of this law. After mine explosions or during fires in mines deadly gases steal through the workings and imperil the men who survive the violence or the heat. At such times many miners have saved their lives by building barricades to protect themselves from the deadly gases, but many have lost their lives by neglecting to build barricades; also, imprisoned miners have built bulkheads or stoppings in an imperfect or inadequate way, and later on have perished. This circular has been written for the benefit of any miner who may be trapped some time in a mine by an explosion or a fire, in the hope he may escape death by knowing how others have saved their lives by promptly sealing themselves behind well-constructed barricades, bulkheads, or stoppings