Cumnock Chronicle | Features

Published: Wednesday, 30th July, 2008 12:00

Fire Down Below

By Sandy Kilpatrick

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On July 22, 1908, news of the Highhouse Colliery fire spread from one end of Auchinleck to the other. All that was known was that over 76 miners were underground - and it was believed they were doomed.

The town seemed to have emptied itself of its inhabitants, so eager was the rush to the pit. Men, women and children flocked to the mine to learn for themselves the extent of the fire, and a human chain quickly formed to pass buckets of water to dowse the flames. Despite their best efforts the building was soon burning out of control.

The fire originated in the engine-room, but how it started remains a mystery. The Highhouse pit comprises of two shafts about 30 yards apart, one for the men to travel up and down known as No.1 or the 'wet’ shaft, and one for ventilation, No.2 or the 'dry’ shaft both of which are connected by a gangway, directly below which runs over the engine-room. The flames caught the gangway and ran along it, fanned by a cool breeze, in the direction of No.1 shaft. In an incredibly short time the flames licked their way through and soon the pithead was one mass of burning material. Just as the gangway had carried the flames to No.1 so did it carry the flames to No.2 shaft.

By this time thousands of people had assembled from all parts of the countryside. The bing was covered in spectators, while the immediate area of the pithead was thronged with anxious friends and sympathisers.

An eyewitness said :”The sight of the burning mass will be one which will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. When the wind momentarily blew the flames aside from the frames (it) revealed the huge uprights standing like great columns of burning gold against the black night sky. It was fascinating but it was awful. for in every heart were thoughts of the poor men below who were being cut off from all escape.”

In the claustrophobic passages below, the first sign the miners received of a fire was the dense black smoke being pushed into the pit by the ventilation fan. The men closest to the shafts made their way to the cages and the surface. But, one miled below ground, other men continued to work, unaware of the danger above them.

The miners soon became uneasy when the smoke from a blast failed to clear. When they realised no air was coming down the ventilation rones they set off to warn the other men. At first they thought that perhaps the dislodged coal had released gas. Miners were always wary of methane and firedamp, which could explode when mixed with air. But when no puff of air made the flame of their lamps flicker, they knew something, somewhere, was seriously wrong.

They killed the flame on their 'Tally’ lamps to prevent the risk of exposure and began the long mile and a half trek to the bottom of the shaft. It was a dark journey but they might be safer there. On the surface the frames fell with tremendous force sending myriads of sparks into the air and completely demolishing the engine-room, as if in revenge for the holocaust it had originated. The tows of No.1 shaft were made of hemp and were quickly burned through by the flames but the tows of shaft No.2 where made of steel wire. All hope of saving the No.1 shaft had been abandoned and efforts were concentrated on flooding the lower doors of No.2 pit with water.

The engine man Samuel Williamson refused to budge as the building burned around him. He worked on in the searing heat, saving 36 men as the cable holding the cage glowed red. Some of the miners had suffered greatly through smoke which they had encountered near the bottom and coming up the shaft. Apprehension filled workers and onlookers as they feared the black suffocating smoke would find its way to all the trapped men, and carry death with it.

Up until 10 o’clock men were being saved and brought up the shaft, but the engine man’s heroics came to an abrupt end when the wire snapped and the empty cage plummeted to the bottom of the shaft, followed by burning debris.

Then the nightmare of the fire reached the men below. The men below could become easily entombed if the timber that supported the mine caught fire and gave way. The men quickly extinguished the flames, but they were trapped.

Up above, only those who understood mining knew what a loss the No.2 cage meant to the men below. The miners on the surface worked quickly by cutting the ventilation fans that were filling the caverns with deadly smoke. The motors which powered the ventilation fans could not be reached as the building was engulfed in flames and the fan engine worked automatically. But the workers’ quick thinking to cut off the steam for the boilers soon stopped the fan spinning and gave hope to the families of the trapped men.

By the time Cumnock Fire Brigade arrived the No.1 shaft had burned all it had to burn. And the last of the smouldering debris was put out by the firemen’s jet, made feeble by the low pressure and the great distance to a water main.

With No.1 shaft now clear, active minds and busy hands soon devised a way in which the trapped men could be reached. At 5.30am a winch with steel wire was erected over the charred remains of No.1 pit. The stability of their work was essential, lives depended on it.

Silence fell as a gallant quartet stepped forward to make their perilous descent into the pit of one hundred fathoms. As they descended into the darkness many an eye filled, and many a silent prayer was offered for their safety, and for the men they were risking so much to save. The descent seemed to last an eternity for the mothers, wives and children of the men below the surface. No one could tell they were wracked with anxiety, and how they had feared and hoped throughout the endless hours of the night.

A bell sounded the safe arrival of the men at the bottom, and almost no time had past until it was known that the men who had spent the night in the pit were safe and well.

A report stated: “Woman wept for joy, and strong men were moved to emotion, and deep down in every heart there was a peculiar happiness that only such transitions from sorrow to happiness can call up.

“Eager hands helped the first men out of the shaft and the lowering and raising of the winch took much time but there was many willing hands at the crane, and by the afternoon all the imprisoned miners had been safely restored to the bosom of their family,”

Despite the ferocity of the blaze, there was no loss of life but the colliery was out of action for sometime. Highhouse was finally closed in 1983 but tales of the fire would be carried from miner to miner of the heroism and fortitude of 1908.

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