The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst
mining accident
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground mining (hard rock), underground coal mining, although accidents al ...
, caused the death of 1,099 miners in Northern France on 10 March 1906. This disaster was surpassed only by the
Benxihu Colliery accident in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
on 26 April 1942, which killed 1,549 miners. A coal-dust explosion, the cause of which is not known with certainty, devastated a
coal mine
Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
operated by the ''Compagnie des mines de houille de Courrières''. Victims lived nearby in the villages of
Méricourt (404 people killed),
Sallaumines (304 killed),
Billy-Montigny
Billy-Montigny (; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
Geography
An ex- coalmining industrial town situated just east of the centre of Lens at the junction of the N43 and D46 roads. ...
(114 people killed), and
Noyelles-sous-Lens (102 people killed). The mine was 2 km (1 mi) to the east of
Lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...
, in the
Pas-de-Calais
The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...
département'' (about 220 km, or 140 miles, north of Paris).
A large explosion was heard shortly after 06:30 on the morning of Saturday 10 March 1906. An elevator cage at Shaft 3 was thrown to the surface, damaging the
pit-head; windows and roofs were blown out on the surface at Shaft 4; an elevator cage raised at Shaft 2 contained only dead or unconscious miners.
Initial cause
It is generally agreed that the majority of the deaths and destruction were caused by an explosion of
coal dust
Coal dust is a fine-powdered form of coal which is created by the crushing, grinding, or pulverizer, pulverization of coal rock. Because of the brittle nature of coal, coal dust can be created by mining, transporting, or mechanically handling it. ...
which swept through the mine. However it has never been ascertained what caused the initial ignition of the coal dust. Two main causes have been hypothesized:
* An accident during the handling of mining
explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...
s.
* Ignition of methane by the naked flame of a miner's lamp.
There is evidence favoring both these hypotheses. Blasting was being done in the area believed to be the source of the explosion, after initial attempts to widen a gallery had been abandoned the previous day for lack of success. Many workers in the mine used lamps with naked flames (as opposed to the more expensive
Davy lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp used in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy.[Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...](_blank)
arrived at the scene on 12 March. The first funerals occurred on 13 March, during an unseasonal snowstorm; 15,000 people attended. The funerals were a focus for the anger of the mining communities against the companies which owned the concessions, and the first strikes started the next day in the Courrières area, extending quickly to other areas in the départements of the Pas-de-Calais and the
Nord.
The slow progress of the rescue exacerbated the tensions between the mining communities and the companies. By 1 April only 194 bodies had been brought to the surface. There were many accusations that the ''Compagnie des mines de Courrières'' was deliberately delaying the reopening of blocked shafts to prevent coalface fires (and hence to save the coal seams): more recent studies tend to consider such claims as exaggerated. The mine was unusually complex for its time, with the different pitheads being interconnected by underground galleries on multiple levels. Such complexity was intended to facilitate access for rescuers in the case of an accident—it also helped the coal to be brought to the surface—but it contributed to the large loss of life by allowing the dust explosion to travel further and then by increasing the debris which had to be cleared by the rescuers. About 110 km (70 mi) of tunnel are believed to have been affected by the explosion. Gérard Dumont of the Centre historique minier de Lewarde has shown that the plans of the mine existing at the time of the accident were difficult to interpret: some measured the depth of galleries by reference to the minehead, others by reference to sea level.
Survivors
About 500 miners were able to reach the surface in the hours immediately after the explosion.
Many were severely burned and suffering the effects of mine gases.
A group of 13 survivors, known later as the ''rescapés'', was found by rescuers on 30 March, 20 days after the explosion.
They had survived at first by eating bark from the crossbeams, later by eating a rotting mine horse.
They avoided dehydration by drinking the water dripping from the walls.
The two eldest (39 and 40 years old) were awarded the ''
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
'', the other eleven (including three younger than 18 years of age) received the ''
Médaille d'or du courage''. A final survivor was found on 4 April.
Public response
The disaster at the Courrières mine was one of the first in France to be reported on a large scale by the media of the day. The
Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 July 1881 had specified the basis for a (relative) freedom of the press, and
Lille
Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...
, the regional capital less than 40 km (25 mi) away, had at least five daily newspapers whose reporters engaged in a fierce competition for news from the mine. Photographs could not then be published in newspapers for technical reasons, but were widely distributed as postcards; on average, each French resident sent fifteen postcards during 1906. A postcard of the thirteen ''rescapés'' was available nine days after their discovery.
The first public appeal for funds to help the victims and their families was established the day after the explosion by ''Le Réveil du Nord'', a Lille daily newspaper. In the newspaper ''
L'Humanité
(; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist."
History ...
'' of the next day, socialist and pacifist politician
Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; ), was a French socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became a social democrat and one of the first possibi ...
wrote:
It is a call for social justice that comes to the nation's representatives from the depths of the burning mines. It is the harsh and suffering destiny of work that, once more, manifests itself to all. And would political action be something else than the sad game of ambitions and vanities if it didn't propose to itself the liberation of the workers' people, the organisation of a better life for those who work?
Such appeals became widespread, and were supplemented by the sale of special collections of postcards depicting the disaster. The different appeals were eventually subsumed by an official fund—itself established by a law enacted only four days after the explosion—and a total of 750,000 francs was raised. This at a time when the daily wage for a miner (a well-paid job compared to other manual work) was less than six francs. Over half the total was contributed by the ''Compagnie des mines de houille de Courrières'', which operated the mine, and by the ''Comité central des houillières de France'' (Central Committee of French Coal Mines, an
employers' association).
On 18 March, a
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
* Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
* Airstrike, ...
was publicized and quickly extended itself to the entire region. Minister of Interior
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A physician turned journalist, he played a central role in the poli ...
visited the region twice, but "no promises were kept", according to ''L'Humanité''. Clemenceau's first visit was filled with optimism and ex-president
Jean Casimir-Perier stated that "I have the strongest hope that our discussion... will lead to an understanding which is desirable for all." However, the following day the strikers rejected the concessions offered by the mining companies and the number of strikers reached 46,000.
See also
* ''
Kameradschaft'', a 1931 dramatic film by
G. W. Pabst, based on the disaster
* ''Fraternity'', a 2016 brass band contest piece by
Thierry Deleruyelle, based on the disaster
*
Mining in France
*
Polish immigration to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield
References
Further reading
* Vouters, Bruno (2006). ''Courrières 10 mars 1906 : la terrible catastrophe.'' Lille: Editions La Voix du Nord. 48 pp. .
External links
Centre historique minier de Lewarde(; each day during 2006 a new article about the March 10, 1906 accident)
article from ''
L'Humanité
(; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist."
History ...
'' . Translated from
ttps://www.humanite.fr/journal/2006-03-11/2006-03-11-826033 "Ils étaient 1099, morts pour le profit" published on March 11, 2006.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Courrieres Mine Disaster
Labor disputes in France
Gas explosions in France
1906 mining disasters
History of the Pas-de-Calais
Coal mining disasters in France
March 1906 in Europe
Explosions in 1906
1906 disasters in France
Dust explosions
1906 fires
1900s fires in Europe
1906 labor disputes and strikes