1st MAJOR MINING DISASTER -

In 1897 there was a tragedy at the Mount Charlotte mine when some dynamite caught fire. The practice at the time was to use candles with naked flames and one of these managed to get into a box of dynamite and set it on fire. The explosives did not go off but the miners fearing an explosion started climbing a nearby shaft to get away. The fumes from the burning explosives drifted up around the men as they climbed and although they all reached the surface alive, six of them would die in the next few hours from the fumes they had inhaled. Only one of the men exposed to the fumes survived but a miner who was not exposed and was working at a lower level suffered no ill effects. The truth is if the men had simply moved away from the fumes instead of panicking they would all have lived to tell the tale.

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