IRON
AND
COAL
AND
COAL
Fire at Ogilvie Colliery
The following account is an abridged version of the report that was published in the September 1972 (No. 144) issue of The Mining Engineer, the journal of the Institution of Mining Engineers. The original report includes detailed analyis of the air samples obtained prior to and during the course of the fire and discusses the development of the fire from its oxygen rich to fuel rich state, However, this information is not included in this abridged version
I have augmented this abridged version with additional information and photographs that were not part of the original report, and such items have been thus identified within the text (italics), the text, where necessary, being converted to the past tense since Ogilvie Colliery closed in 1975
SYNOPSIS
I have augmented this abridged version with additional information and photographs that were not part of the original report, and such items have been thus identified within the text (italics), the text, where necessary, being converted to the past tense since Ogilvie Colliery closed in 1975
SYNOPSIS
A major underground fire tests to the full the resources and organization at any colliery. When the fire occurs during a period when the least number of staff is available to organize and deal with it, the emergency becomes more acute.
The incident which is discussed deals with a major fire which could not be fought or sealed off by conventional underground methods, the source of which has remained unidentified.
The fire was the catalyst to the closure of the colliery a few years later in 1975
The incident which is discussed deals with a major fire which could not be fought or sealed off by conventional underground methods, the source of which has remained unidentified.
The fire was the catalyst to the closure of the colliery a few years later in 1975
BACKGROUND INFORMATION RELATING TO OGILVIE COLLIERY
Location
Ogilvie Colliery was situated at the northern end of the County Borough of Caerphilly, between the villages of Deri and Fochriw in the Darran valley, as illustrated on Fig. 1.
As a result of a reorganization scheme approved by the National Coal Board (NCB) in 1952 and completed in 1958, the colliery was a merger of three separate collieries, Ogilvie, McLaren and Rhymney Merthyr.
The Rhymney Merthyr shafts were abandoned in November 1967 but the McLaren shafts, situated some six miles away by road, continued to be used for manriding and ventilation.
The Rhymney Merthyr shafts were abandoned in November 1967 but the McLaren shafts, situated some six miles away by road, continued to be used for manriding and ventilation.
The Ogilvie take had relatively flat measures, the full dip rarely exceeding 1 in 15 in a north to south direction.
The western boundary for practical purposes was defined by a trough fault formed by the Pengam and Penydarren faults, to the west of which lay the old Bedlinog workings.
The southern and eastern boundaries coincided with the neighbouring old Elliot and Groesfaen workings.
