Gresford Disaster - Rescue Attempts

Rescue Attempts

Shortly before dawn, volunteer rescue teams from Gresford and Llay Main collieries began entering the pit with ponies to tackle the fire and help clear debris.

However three members of Llay No. 1 rescue team, the first group to enter the mine after the explosion, were asphyxiated by afterdamp after being ordered to proceed up the mile-long return airway of the 20's district. The route, which would have taken them around the fire in the Clutch, would have eventually reached the workings of the 61's. John Charles Williams, the Llay team's leader, after the airway ahead narrowed to 3 feet (0.91 m) by 3 feet (0.91 m) and less, tried dragging another team member for over 40 yards (37 m) towards safety before being overcome himself by poisonous gases. Williams would be the only survivor; he was said by his family to be the man who later wrote the anonymous broadside ballad "The Gresford Disaster", which was highly critical of the mine's management.

As the Llay team's attempt to gain access via the 20's return airway had proved fatal and the previous escape route from 29's was also found to be full of afterdamp, rescue efforts became focused on trying to fight the fire in the main road of the Dennis section. However their efforts were hindered by the heat and flames in the main road and a lack of water and fire-fighting equipment. Rockfalls at the entrance to the 29's soon made it clear there was little chance of escape for the men trapped in the affected districts. Besides the miners trapped in the most northerly districts, the 20's and 61's, would have been more than a 1 mile (1.6 km) on the wrong side of the fire.

By early Saturday morning large crowds of concerned relatives and off-duty miners had gathered silently at the pit head awaiting news. Hopes were raised in the evening when rumours began circulating that the fire in the Dennis main road was being brought under control; families waiting at the surface were told rescue teams would soon be able to reach the miners in the 29's, the nearest district beyond the Clutch.

However, by Sunday evening it became clear conditions in the pit had become extremely hazardous. Rescue teams were withdrawn as further explosions happened on the far side of the fire. Relatives were told the shafts into the Dennis section would be capped because no one could have survived and it was far too dangerous to try and recover any further bodies.

More explosions continued to occur within the pit over next few days. On 25 September, a rescuer named George Brown became the disaster's final victim when he was killed by flying debris after one blast blew the the cap off the Dennis shaft.

In total, only 11 bodies were ever recovered from the mine. Inquests recorded the cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning. The mine shafts remained sealed for six months. Gradually unaffected districts were re-entered although the Dennis section was sealed and never reopened. None of the bodies of the remaining 254 victims of the disaster were ever recovered from the sealed districts.