Courrières mine disaster

10 March 1906 Coalfield between Courrières and Lens (Pas-de-Calais) · France

1,099Deaths

Not quantifiedDisplaced / homeless

Not quantifiedEstimated cost

Official toll: 1,099 deaths. It is the worst mining disaster in European history and the second worst in the world.

A coal-dust explosion tears through 110 km of galleries of the Courrières Mining Company. The search is called off after three days; twenty days later, thirteen survivors make their own way back to the surface after wandering in the dark.

Consequences

Human consequences

1,099 miners killed, including young pit boys. A fourteenth survivor is found on 4 April. Widows are forced to leave the company’s miners’ cottages.

Environmental consequences

Part of the mine is sealed off to smother the fire and save the coal seam, at the risk of condemning any survivors.

Economic consequences

The company, which supplied 7% of French coal, is paralysed, and a massive strike spreads across the coalfield.

Political consequences

Clemenceau sends thousands of soldiers against the strikers. German rescuers from Westphalia are hailed at a time of Franco-German tension. The disaster weighs in the introduction of a weekly day of rest in July 1906.

Similar disasters

In the rankings : The worst disasters in France No. 4The worst industrial and nuclear disasters No. 4

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