Officials ‘at a loss’ over pit roof fall that claimed miner’s life

But whatever led to the rock fall that trapped father of two Gerry Gibson 800 metres underground, the impact on the tight-knit community around Kellingley Colliery, near Knottingley, North Yorkshire, was all too clear yesterday.

His grief-stricken widow was too upset to talk and for those who could, the strain and grief were evident.

On Tuesday night, as the major emergency operation was under way, distraught family members who did not know if their loved ones were involved had gathered at the pit entrance, some in tears.

Rescuers were able to reach a second man, Phil Sheldon, from Horbury, near Wakefield, who suffered minor injuries when he was trapped by his leg. He is understood to be a close friend of the dead man.

Yesterday, Mr Sheldon returned to the pit to assist the investigation but was too upset to talk publicly.

Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams, whose uncle worked at Kellingley for 20 years, said miners had performed heroics in trying to reach the pair.

Mr Adams said: “It’s worth pointing out that [their] colleagues performed heroics in trying to rescue them. In fact they succeeded in getting out one of the miners. Sadly, one of the guys didn't make it. It's certainly worth pointing out the heroism of the fellow shift workers.”

A full inquiry by the Health and Safety Executive is under way at Kellingley, but UK Coal spokesman Andrew Mackintosh said the initial investigation had shown no problems with the coal seam or the equipment, which he said was almost brand new, costing tens of millions of pounds.

Paying tribute to Mr Gibson, who was from North Yorkshire, he said: “He was highly skilled, highly respected. As well as all that, he was a very close friend of most of the people who worked on the same shift as him.

“It’s been a huge loss. It hits an industry like coal-mining far harder, I suspect, than many industries because of that close-knit approach.

“Gerry was a family man with a wife and two children and obviously our thoughts are with them at the moment. We know that there’s a strong support network thanks to the mining approach to these things but we will do all we can to help them.”

The general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, Chris Kitchen said: “The workforce at Kellingley are a family in every sense of the word. They look after each other, they cover each other’s back. And when anything like this happens, it just devastates everybody.

“I knew Mr Gibson. He came here in the back end of 2004 and I still worked here until 2007. Mr Gibson was an integral part of this mine. He was well respected by the team he worked with and by his other colleagues on other shifts. Everyone’s devastated by what’s happened.”

Mr Kitchen added: “The pit will get through this. The pit will rally round Gerry’s family. It’s tragic what’s happened and it should never have happened and the investigation will conclude what did go wrong.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who is a local MP, visited the colliery first thing yesterday to talk to management and unions on her way to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Ms Cooper, who is MP for Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, looked ashen-faced as she said: “All the people I’ve talked to this morning – the management and the unions and the workforce – everybody is just really shocked by what’s happened but also thinking about the families involved. All of our thoughts must be with them this morning.”

Kellingley’s two main shafts are almost 800 metres (875ft) deep. Only one of them is used by miners, the other is used to transport coal. It supplies local power stations and produces some household coal.

The incident came just weeks after the flooding tragedy at the Gleision Colliery in Wales, which claimed the lives of four miners.