A coal-dust explosion, the cause of which is not known with certainty, devastated the coal mine operated by the Compagnie des mines de houille de Courrières (founded in 1852) between the villages of Méricourt (404 people killed), Sallaumines (304 killed), Billy-Montigny (114 people killed), and Noyelles-sous-Lens (102 people killed) about 2 km (1 mi) to the east of Lens, in the Pas-de-Calais département (about 220 km, or 140 miles, north of Paris). Many workers in the mine used lamps with naked flames (as opposed to the more expensive Davy lamps), despite the risk of gas explosions.

I believe learning should be a life long pursuit and that the study of history is integral to the development of a mature, modern 'thinking' and 'questioning' society. Courrières mine disaster, the tenth march 1906, in the towns of Billy-Montigny, Sallaumines, Méricourt and Noyelles-sous-Lens. The History of Us® is a registered trademark, 'Ils etaient 1099, morts pour le profit'; Lenaig Bredoux, l'Humanite (Translated by Patrick Bolland), View other events that happened on March 10. You could also do it yourself at any point in time. ( Log Out /  [2] A coaldust explosion, the cause of which is not known with certainty, devastated a coal mine operated by the Compagnie des mines de houille de Courrières. Change ). An elevator cage at Shaft 3 was thrown to the surface, damaging… The “Courrières catastrophe”, in the cobweb of mineshafts below the villages mentioned in this article, was preceded by a lot of smoke and the detection of toxic gases in the mine in the days before the explosion. A postcard of the thirteen rescapés was available nine days after their discovery.[10]. The source code for the WIKI 2 extension is being checked by specialists of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Apple. A dust explosion, the cause of which is not known with certainty, devastated a coal mine operated by the Compagnie des mines de houille de Courrières (founded in 1852) between the villages of Méricourt (404 killed), Sallaumines (304 killed), Billy-Montigny (114 killed), and Noyelles-sous-Lens (102 killed) about two kilometres (one mile) to the east of Lens, in the Pas-de-Calais département (about 220 km, or 140 miles, north of Paris). Courrieres disaster - Rescuers discover a heap of corpses Coal miners trapped underground by a roof fall, Courrieres Mines, Pas-de-Calais, France, 1906.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. [8] They had survived at first by eating bark from the crossbeams, later by eating a rotting mine horse. Mining Disasters Caustic Soda. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. As Monsieur Delafond, General Inspector of Mines, put it in his report: The primary cause of the Courrières catastrophe could not be determined with absolute certainty. [7], A group of thirteen survivors, known later as the rescapés, was found by rescuers on 30 March, twenty days after the explosion. Blasting was being done in the area believed to be the source of the explosion, after initial attempts to widen a gallery had been abandoned the previous day for lack of success. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. [1] This disaster was surpassed only by the Benxihu Colliery accident in China on 26 April 1942, which killed 1,549 miners. The company was warned by a union delegate, but refused to stop production: 1099 of the 1800 miners who were ordered to continue work despite the evident danger on 10 March 1906 died in the disaster. An elevator cage at Shaft 3 was thrown to the surface, damaging pit-head workings; windows and roofs were blown out on the surface at Shaft 4; an elevator cage raised at Shaft 2 contained only dead or unconscious miners. Congratulations on this excellent venture… what a great idea! A large explosion was heard shortly after 06:30 on the morning of Saturday 10 March 1906. [citation needed] The mine was unusually complex for its time, with the different pitheads being interconnected by underground galleries on multiple levels. 10 March The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst mining accident, caused the death of 1,099 miners (including many children) in Northern France on this day in 1906. Photographs could not then be published in newspapers for technical reasons, but were widely distributed as postcards; on average, each French resident sent fifteen postcards during 1906. [8] The two eldest (39 and 40 years old) were awarded the Légion d'honneur, the other eleven (including three younger than 18 years of age) received the Médaille d'or du courage. A large explosion was heard shortly after 06:30 on the morning of Saturday 10 March 1906. To install click the Add extension button. A large explosion was heard shortly after 06:30 on the morning of Saturday 10 March 1906. The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst mining accident, caused the death of 1,099 miners (including many children) in Northern France on 10 March 1906. About 500 miners were able to reach the surface during the hours immediately after the explosion. "[12] However, the following day the strikers rejected the concessions offered by the mining companies and the number of strikers reached 46,000.[13]. A coaldust explosion, the cause of which is not known with certainty, devastated a… Ed. [5] Gérard Dumont of the Centre historique minier de Lewarde has shown that the plans of the mine existing at the time of the accident were difficult to interpret:[6] some measured the depth of galleries by reference to the minehead, others by reference to sea level. There were many accusations that the Compagnie des mines de Courrières was deliberately delaying the reopening of blocked shafts to prevent coalface fires (and hence to save the coal seams): more recent studies tend to consider such claims as exaggerated.