The worst mining disaster in European history occurred on March, 10, 1906. 1,099 coal miners at a mine in northern France were killed when coal dust exploded. (The worst mining accident was the Benxihu Colliery Incident in China in 1942. 1,549 miners were killed.) On March 9, a fire broke out in one of the shafts 270 meters below the surface. The cause is still unknown, but two theories are that there was an accident in the handling of explosives or that a miner’s flame on his helmet set off methane gases starting a fire in one of the shafts.. The solution to the fire was to seal off the area to starve the fire. Unfortunately, gases seeped through the walls. The massive explosion occurred at 6:30 A.M. on a Saturday morning. The maze of tunnels were all connected so the fire surged through the whole mine. And out the entrances of the tunnels. Some people on the surface were killed. Four nearby villages were affected because their miners would enter the maze of shafts from their village. Most of the victims were trapped underground and rescue efforts were hampered by lack of trained rescuers in the area. 40 men who attempted to reach some of the trapped miners were killed when the mine collapsed on them. Experts did not arrive from Paris and Germany until March 12. By then 2/3 of the miners caught in the mine had died. By April 1, only 194 bodies had been recovered. 500 miners made it out of the mine, but many were badly burned or suffered from gas inhalation. Amazingly, 13 miners were rescued on March 30. They became famous as “les rescapes”. They had survived by eating the bark off beams and a dead horse. They drank water dripping from the walls. The last survivor was rescued on April 4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courri%C3%A8res_mine_disaster
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mine-explosion-kills-1060-in-france
https://www.britannica.com/event/Courrieres-mining-disaster
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