Vancouver Coal Company
As part of the Chinese Historical Wrongs Legacy Initiative, we’ve digitized a small selection of inquests and inquiries from 1872 to 1934, found in series GR-0431. These were chosen to reflect the experiences of early Chinese immigrants to B.C. – their living and working conditions, and their unfortunate accidental or unusual deaths. They range from a woman working in a brothel in Barkerville who died of natural causes to three sawmill workers who died from malnutrition. Learn more.
*All transcriptions are provided by volunteers, and the accuracy of the transcriptions is not guaranteed. Please be sure to verify the information by viewing the image record, or visiting the BC Archives in person.
*Please note that archival source materials are original historical documents that have not been censored, reviewed or otherwise altered by the Royal BC Museum. Some materials may contain content that is racist, sexist or otherwise offensive. The Royal BC Museum is only the custodian of archival materials; the content does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Royal BC Museum.
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37 [?Know] and they always did as I told them. I might to be thoroughly acquainted with my duties. The Chinese men [>] in mourning boxes in the mine but were not mining coal. There were only two stalls in the near slope when gas was found during the previous four weeks. It was very little hardly worth mentioning but I was bound to report it. I was bound to report gas whenever found but found none for some six months weeks previous to the explosion. The mine is not working on Sunday but the fireman is there and the air goes down as usual
To the Coronier There are three fireman one for each of the shifts The shifts are eight hour shifts. There is a firemen in the mine all the time. In examining the mine [?Ive] used ladders to examine the high roofs. I examined the roof from the top to the bottom of the diagonal. In some cases in [?closing] this I climbed upon the timbers and in other cases used a pole to put up my lamp. Curtains were placed where necessary the pot holes in the roof were clear. I always found them clear and a good current of air there. Fifty thousand cubic feet of air go down the slope per minute. Found small quantities of gas there once in a while but no [?fochy] of it.
To Mr Young I knew where timbers of the brattice are at the end of the tunnel cross cut at the foot of the slope. The was a opening two feet between the timber and the roof at that place. There is no opportunity for the lodgment of any gas there without my finding it out if I look for it and I always looked for it. I examined it that very day and called the miners attention to it at the time if there had been gas it would have lodged there. I told the men to look at my lamp when I was examining it.
To the Foreman. Some of the roofs are twenty feet high and in examine them by climbing on ladders. Once in a while I have found a little gas in the roof of the diagonal. It was not in dangerous quantities. I always removed it when I found it. It might have been