Brunner mine disaster, 1896 (1st of 3)

Brunner mine disaster, 1896 (1st of 3)

The photograph shows one of the first bodies to be recovered from the Brunner mine. The worst loss of life in New Zealand mining occurred at this mine on 26 March 1896. An explosion was heard at 9.30 a.m. Two men went underground to investigate and were later found unconscious from black damp, a suffocating mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. From about 11 a.m. rescuers began bringing out bodies. Many of the rescuers also suffered from the noxious gases and had to be carried out. The final toll was 65.

In the radio interview recorded on the 50th anniversary of the disaster, 91-year-old H. G. Griffin, who saw smoke from the explosion while working on the railway close by, recalls the dreadful day. The official enquiry determined that the cause was the detonating of a charge in a part of the mine where no one should have been working. However, some experienced miners claimed that firedamp – methane gas produced by coal – had accumulated and not been cleared due to an ineffective ventilation system.

Sound file from Sound Archives / Ngā Taonga Kōrero