‘Stuck in the bowels of hell’

Two hero miners saved the lives of nine of their comrades earlier this month, after the group were trapped by a huge fire 1.1km underground in a Teesside potash mine.

The miners, all Unite members, were caught inside Europe’s second deepest mine outside the village of Boulby in the early hours of Wednesday last week after the fire broke out.

While sheltering in a “safe haven” deep below the surface the miners realised that their oxygen was running out, prompting two of them to set off into the pitch black tunnels and retrieve a bus to bring the rest to safety.

After a four hour ordeal, and significant efforts by their other work mates who managed to escape and extinguish the blaze, all of the miners eventually emerged from the pit, which stretches four miles out under the North Sea, without serious injury.

“We really were stuck in the bowels of hell. It felt like we were boiling alive and towards the end the oxygen was so low we were just rebreathing our own breath,” said one of the survivors, who asked not to be identified.

At this point two of the miners decided that it was literally a do or die situation. Visibility was zero and the temperature in the mine – normally hovering between a sweltering 30 and 40 degrees – had risen to unbearable levels because of the fire, which reached in excess of 1,000 degrees at its epicentre.

Relying on their intimate knowledge of the mine shafts to guide them in the dark and battling through despite the heat, exhaustion and lack of air, the two miners reached the bus and returned to bring their colleagues to safety.

Nine of the miners were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and were released the same day.

‘Horrible experience’

“If they hadn’t have brought the bus back people would have died, there’s no doubt about it. It was a horrible experience. I was so glad to get to the surface and breath fresh air again,” said the miner.

Most of the 100 miners on shift that morning managed to escape when the fire started 1.1km underground and flooded the mine with smoke.

An open ended safety investigation is now underway involving the HM Inspectorate of Mines, owners Cleveland Potash and Unite representatives.

It is not yet known why the fire started, but the blaze is thought to have involved polystyrene blocks.

Unite Boulby shop steward, John Chilton, described the situation as “every miners’ worst nightmare” and praised the actions of those involved.

“The bravery of the lads was outstanding. And it wasn’t just the men trapped underground. There was also a volunteer rescue team who all went back into it and battled to get those lads out. Unfortunately because of the smoke they weren’t able to get there, but they really put themselves into a tough place to try and rescue them,” Chilton said.

“They are all Unite members and that’s not mentioning the Unite members who actually put the fire out. It’s not like a factory fire where you can call the fire brigade. They can’t get in there. You have to fight your own fires in a mine.”

Chilton also said the blaze proved the necessity of having health and safety reps within dangerous environments.

He said, “What I would like to see out of this is a bigger recognition of the usefulness of health and safety reps at work.

“This incident shows the importance of having strong safety reps.”

Pic of Boulby mine from a visit in 2010. By Mark Harvey