Old Control Room Fire.

It doesn’t always go smoothly underground – I can imagine this caused considerable hazard underground, loads of toxic fumes, smoke and, worst of all, a lack of oxygen. Ian Benson recalls: “Remember having to go to site of fire with another miner to collect all the discharged fire extinguishers that the rescue team had used to put fire out and take to man shaft pit bottom to be sent out of mine for refilling. They must have used practically all the extinguishers down the mine. The fire I recall was around 1976. The photograph is just as I remember the scene”.

Image courtesy of Alan M Franks and thanks to Ian Benson for that update.