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Ch. 13: Obstacles and Perils

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OBSTACLES AND PERILS
29
mine manager, Mr. Lindsay, reported that the work was pro­gressing as fast as practicable and that the shaft would be in run­ning order within a few hours.
At about half-past six o'clock in the evening Lindsay and six miners went down the shafts in one of the small skips. A few minutes later an alarm of fire was given just as I was about to drive to my home from the works. It was reported to me through the telephone that the Friggin's shaft was on fire. It is probable that one of the native miners had sneaked
off to the disused engine room on the 500-foot level, and placed a lighted candle so carelessly that the flame ignited the timbers, perhaps while the lazy savage was snoring on the floor. The precise cause of the fire was, however, never determined, but from the time of its starting, it spread with such swiftness that it could not be stifled.
Within a few minutes after the outbreak of the fire both of the incline shafts were filled with dense smoke, as both shafts were upcasts, and the passage of any of the men through these exits from the mine workings was hopelessly shut off". When the alarm was given, there were 685 men at work in the levels below the fire, and our anxiety for their safety may be readily conceived. At the first warning of danger two men were sent
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