Aberfan Disaster

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An ordinary schoolday

The disaster that struck the village of Aberfan on 21 October 1966 was surely one of the most poignant tragedies of the twentieth century.  When the coal waste tip slid down the side of the mountain, engulfing the primary school, a farm and around twenty houses, the loss was enormous.  In total, 144 people lost their lives, including 116 school children. 

It was shortly after 9 o’clock on that Friday morning that the south face of coal tip number 7 of the Merthyr Vale Colliery began to move.  Schoolchildren had just returned from their morning assembly at Pantglas School, ready to begin the day’s classes when a thunderous noise was heard from the hillside above the village.  Seconds later, thousands of tonnes of black coal slag swept towards Aberfan, taking with it first a farmhouse before crashing into the primary school, surrounding shops and houses and part of the nearby secondary school which didn’t open its doors until 9.30. Children and adults were trapped by the mud and slurry that quickly filled the classrooms and homes.

The rescue attempt

Rescuers arrived at the scene in an instant, desperate to free those trapped beneath the weight of the waste.  Several schoolchildren were rescued in those first few minutes before more and more help arrived.  Cries could be heard from beneath the debris as many dug with their bare hands in their desperation to reach those who were trapped. 

The crisis whistle blew at the nearby Merthyr Vale colliery and the miners were brought up to the surface.  They hurried to the school to join in the rescue attempt with their tools in their hands and their skills helped organise efforts; forming gangs and tunnelling into areas where they thought some might be trapped. 

Slowly, they began to discover bodies beneath the debris.  Every now and again, a rescuer would shout for silence to listen for the cries of those beneath.  One-by-one, small children were lifted and passed along the line which had formed to the waiting ambulances.  Some were found alive in the immediate aftermath but none were found alive after 11 o’clock that morning.  It was a week before all the bodies were recovered.

The aftermath

People came from across the country, desperate to help at the scene as pictures of the tragedy spread across the world.  This eagerness to assist the people of Aberfan led to £1.75m being contributed to the Disaster Fund.

Soon, people began to look for answers.  Sorrow turned to anger as the National Coal Board tried to exonerate itself of responsibility.  Lord Robens, the Chairman of the Board, claimed that the incident had been caused by a naturally occurring stream poured water into the tips, making them unstable, and that it was impossible to know it was there.  But fears had previously been raised by people from the village about the instability of the slag mountains that loomed over Aberfan and nothing had been done.

The conclusions of the tribunal set up to investigate the disaster were damning.  The Coal Board was condemned for its failure to act on the concerns raised about the safety of the tips and the government was criticised. But no one was prosecuted, fined or dismissed and no one accepted responsibility for the tragedy.

Looking for answers

A campaign to have the tips cleared began but the demands of the people of Aberfan who lived under their shadow were not met.  Their frustration led them to dump bags of slurry in the Welsh Office.  When the government eventually agreed to their removal, the village was asked to pay £150,000 from the Disaster Fund towards the work.  This money was finally repaid to the people of Aberfan by the Welsh Assembly Government in 1997.

The tragedy of Aberfan came at a time when coal was still king in Wales, and many accepted that there was a price to pay for the success of the industry.  However, Aberfan was too high a price and the coal industry was spurred into action to improve the safety of the mines and their tips.