Guest Post by Robert Thompson (aka Rob in Nova Scotia)
The Story
At 5:18am on May 9th, 1992 26 men were killed when an explosion fueled by methane and coal dust consumed the- Westray Coal Mine in Plymouth, Pictou County Nova Scotia. It is now 22 years later and I am still haunted by what happened at that mine. The reason for this is because I worked at there at time of explosion. I still have questions about why this happened and how it could have been prevented.
Westray has ebbed and flowed since explosion in my thoughts and dreams. For me it has always become more intense in lead up to anniversary. I cannot help but think about the grief and loss felt by families of the 26. What makes it more difficult is the sense of injustice that has pervaded everything related to Westray. I cannot begin to understand how the families have felt and still feel about how they were treated by government and the Westray Coal Company.
One cannot speak about Westray without emphasizing the loss of life. It is hard for me to talk about it because it will always be first and foremost their story. When I say their story I mean the 26 men who died and the families left behind. I had only worked at the mine for about 3 weeks when explosion occurred. I didn’t have time to get to know any of the men on that shift. However I did know two of the men. Both I knew from before they started working at mine.
Robbie Doyle grew up just two farms down the road towards New Glasgow. Him being 4 years younger than me meant that we traveled with a different circle of friends. But we did talk and occasionally growing up he would come up to put the hay in barn on my Grandparent’s farm. He was always one to help and he could be found at Volunteer Fire Department many days. Larry Bell was 2 years older. I knew him much better. We spent many weekends during our teens running the roads and having fun.
Larry and Robbie would die on morning of May 9th. As fate would have it they had just returned underground driving a small tractor like one shown in picture. Sometime later I was told that what they were doing could have waited until day shift but knowing them they would not want to not leave it for someone else to pick up. They were all good men who didn’t deserve the fate they were given.
I have always had a problem with the story-line that was told by those who should have known better in Government and the Company. From the outset it was apparent to me that talking points for this cover-up and misdirection of responsibility would be the blaming of the miners who were working that night for their own deaths. I have always strongly felt that this was and is a despicable betrayal by our government in finding the truth of what happened. In permeating this story-line those in power needed to downplay or discredit the importance of the coal dust as a contributing factor in explosion.
Continue reading “Running To The Light”
