Moura 2 Mine 1994
07/08/1994 -
Moura 2 Mine -
Explosion /
Gas Explosion, Coal Dust Explosion
At about 23:35 hours on Sunday 7 August 1994, an explosion occurred in the Moura No 2 underground coal mine.
There were twenty-one persons working underground at the time. Ten men from the northern area of the mine escaped within thirty minutes of the explosion but eleven from the southern area failed to return to the surface.
Those who failed to return comprised a crew of eight who were working in the 5 south section of the mine undertaking first workings for pillar development, and three others, a beltman and a sealing contractor with an assisting miner who were also deployed in the southern side of the mine.
A second and more violent explosion occurred at 12:20 hours on Tuesday 9 August 1994. Rescue and recovery attempts were thereafter abandoned and the mine sealed at the surface.
This accident claimed the lives of 11 people, these were: Christopher Robert Ritchie, Darrell William Hogarth, David Brian King, Geoffrey Mazzer, John Robert Dullahide, Mark Reginald Nelson, Michael Edward Ryan, Michael Edward Shaw, Robert Allan Newton, Robert Parker, Terry Gordon Vivian
Recommendations
- Spontaneous combustion management
- Mine safety management plans
- Training and communications
- Statutory certificates
- Ventilation Officer
- Self Resue breathing apparatus
- Emergency escape facilities
- Gas monitoring system protocols
- Sealing - designs and procedures
- Withdrawal of persons
- Inertisation
- Research into spontaneous combustion
- Panel design
- Mine surface facilities
- Literature and other training support
- Future inquiries