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Q: Were pit lamps used in any other portion of the mine?

A: In No.4 Inoline,naked lights were used.

Q: What was the condition of the mine the day of the explosion, wet or dry?

A: It was wet around that section. Mr. Pooley:- Are both those lamps “A” and “C” locked? Or were locked when found?

A: They were both locked when found.

Q: Was that hole in the roof that was referred to by Mr. Potts, there before or after the explosion? Was that big hole there before or after the explosion?

Q: Well, the one that he mentioned about the gas being in, and reported in the report book, was there before the explosion.

Q: How big a hole was that?

A: Probably about four feet wide and may be two and a half to 3 feet high.

Q: Ina dangerous place?

A: No.

Q: The roof after the explosion was about 25 feet high?

A: Yes, but not in the same place.

Mr. Hall:- Were those 7 Chines burnt sometime ago, burnt on this same level?

A: What do you mean “some time ago” ?

Q: About six months ago?

A: I couldn’t tell.

Mr. Matthews:- They were burnt on the north side.

Mr. Hall:- Are you altogether sure that that hole was four feet wide?

A: It is there to-day to be seen, and it is no higher now than it was then.

Q: Don’t you think the crack extended quite a distance above that?

A: That I couldn’t tell.

Q: You could see it was larger?

A: I couldn’t say. If that cave was broker further up or not, it is a very shaly roof, and the slips may be in this direction.

Q: IT might be larger and you not know it?

A: Yes.

Q: About this exhibit “A”. I think you said something like this, that that lamp in your opinion would have caused the explosion if there had been a volume of gas there?

A: I said if the glass of that lamp had been broken before the accumulation of gas took place, then in my opinion that would have caused the explosion. I don’t think it did cause it, al-though there was that likelihood that it would.

Q: You don’t say that that lamp did cause the explosion?

A: I don’t, but it might have done it.

Q: How do you account for this Exhibit “A” being separated from the other part of the lamp?

A: Then we found that lamp first of all the other part if the lamp was there beside it. To-day it is not there, and where it is I can’t tell you.

Q: Would the man who had these lamps in charge give us any infor-mation with regard to that lamp, whether it went into the mine separately or apart?

A: It never went down the mine like that; that’s a certainty.

By a Juror:- What is the usual procedure when gas is reported in a mine, the same as it is in that book?

A; The usual procedure is, if the men are working with naked lights, they are given safety lamps. The fireman, when there is gas in a place where a man is working, doesn’t fire any shots in that place, but tells the man to get out the coal with a pick. There has been times since I came on when shooting has been stopped and the men allowed extra yardage for taking the coal out with pick and wedge.

Q: Is it contrary to the Act to have a naked light in the travel-ing way?

A; No, I don’t think so.

Q: Is it customary for Chainmen to take matches in there?

A: The law says they should not.

BC Archives GR-0431 Box 6 File 3 BRITISH COLUMBIA. ATTORNEY GENERAL. Inquisitions/inquests conducted by coroners in British Columbia.