Mexborough and Swinton Times – Saturday August 3, 1912.
The Cadeby Disaster.
Next week we shall enter upon the last stage. seems to be the almost interminable story of the Cadeby disaster, for the Home Office is told its enquiry into the cause of the explosions, and the working conditions of South Yorkshire coal mines generally.
We anticipate that there will be place before the Court of Enquiry evidence of widespread interest in mining communities, and of untold value to those who mission it is to make our coalmine safer, for experience, though a hard teacher, is nonetheless a valuable one, and there must be much in the inner story of the Cadeby disaster which men will be the better for knowing.
If we are not brought those rudely face-to-face with the terrible difficulties which crop up in mining engineering, those difficulties would remain forever unconquered. As it is the upmost ingenuity is being exercised at the Cadeby Colliery to guard against a repetition of the events of July 9, and an apparatus has been put in communication with the poisoned area which, it is confidently believed, will have this effect.
It is still impossible to say when the seals will be taken down and the bodies recovered; that will be a gradual process, to be accomplished in many weary weeks.
What we are particularly concerned with now is the question – was anyone to blame, and if so whom, and how far?
Moreover, we should like the opinion of the Home Office experts on the condition of the affected area immediately prior to the second explosion, when groups of train men, alert and quick, with instincts of the presence of danger, were swept away like rats in a trap.
These and other matters – especially the problem of dealing with “gob” fires, it will be the business of the Home Office to informers upon.