Firedamp: How the Creation of a Play about a Disaster Rekindled Community in Coalhurst

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The funeral was held in Lethbridge with an assemblage of 5,000 mourners. Mayor Dave Elton arranged for a train and automobiles to bring the residents of Coalhurst to the city. All businesses closed out of respect. Three services were held: Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. Miners' unions from all over Western Canada were represented in the procession as it wended its way through city streets. The t I widows and 42 children of the deceased miners were clothed in black provided by the mine company from the Hudson's Bay. One family had lost three brothers, the fourth escaping only to return later and find their bodies. In keeping with the military customs of a miner's funeral, the Coalhurst men wore black armbands and posted a 24 hour honour guard following the playing of The Last Post. To this day it is the largest memorial to ever be held in the city.

An official inquiry was conducted in Lethbridge. The men of Coalhurst, supported by letters to the government from Mine Workers' Union locals all across Canada, called for representation by miners on the Board of Inquiry, but to no avail. Justice Lunney was appointed to independently head the investigation. Thirteen hundred pages of testimony revealed multiple safety violations. Broken timbering had been neglected. Sparking had occurred in the newly installed telephone lines. Electrical circuits were overloaded. The most serious discovery was that important doors had been propped open regularly, short-circuiting the air required to ventilate the tunnels and rooms deeper in the mine. The Coalhurst miners had frequently "kicked" about gas in parts of the mine, but their complaints had been ignored. Sometimes compressed air had been used to clear the gas, a forbidden practice. One man was accused of just being too old to load coal when he complained of dizziness and nausea. When colliery officials denied receiving complaints, the local's secretary produced dated records to prove otherwise. In spite of the extent of the inquiry, the results were inconclusive. The most likely cause of the explosion was a broken headlamp which may have sparked and ignited gas that had seeped from old workings. There were controversial accusations that the colliery, intending to close the Imperial Mine in favour of the new Galt No. 8, had been "retreating' rapidly-that is, caving in used sections of the mine and getting out as much cheap coal as possible, and that proper procedure had not been followed, thereby allowing the accumulation of volatile gasses.

As if the mine disaster had not been enough to bear, long-circulating rumours about the closure of the Imperial Mine in Coalhurst became reality, and by April of 1936, the last load of coal was brought to the surface. Lethbridge Collieries was closing Coalhurst in order to transfer operations to the new Galt No. 8 Mine in Lethbridge where they would no longer be required to provide housing and services for employees' families. The town fought the closure, even showing that the mine was still a viable operation, but the matter had been concluded. The surviving workers were laid off. Some got hired on with other local mines, but many had to leave the area entirely. A few remained and took up farming. For the remainder of 1936, 40 houses a month were being moved out of the town, and property became next to worthless. Relief payments, a municipal responsibility, bankrupted the council, and no wonder. The number of families requiring assistance had mushroomed from 11 in December to over 200 by May. The mayor and council were forced to call in the government for help and Coalhurst ceased to be a town.

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Firedamp Cast

Excerpts from the Play

Author: Arlene Purcell has been a teacher for 21 years in Southern Alberta where she and her husband, Leighton, have raised two sons. She currently lives in Lethbridge and teaches language arts and drama at Coalhurst High School.