ABERFAN MINING LANDSLIDE BY JOSEPH WALDOCK The Aberfan Disaster - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ABERFAN MINING LANDSLIDE BY JOSEPH WALDOCK

The Aberfan Disaster The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of • a colliery spoil tip at around 9:15 am on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and covered a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed the local junior school and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.

WHAT HAPPENED There were seven spoil tips on the slopes above An official inquiry was chaired by Lord • • Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the Justice Edmund Davies. The report placed the village—was started in 1958 and, at the time of the blame squarely on the NCB. The organisation's disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention chairman, Lord Robens, was criticised for making of the NCB's official procedures, the tip was partly misleading statements and for not providing clarity based on ground from which water springs as to the NCB's knowledge of the presence of water emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip springs on the hillside. Neither the NCB nor any of was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic its employees were prosecuted and the yards (110,000 m 3 ) of spoil slipped down the side of organisation was not fined. the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was Pantglas Junior School, where lessons had just begun; 5 teachers and 109 children were killed in the school.

SOME PICTURES OF THE DISASTER

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SCHOOL • There were 240 attendees at the school that morning, of which 109 children and five teachers were killed. Some of the staff died attempting to protect the children including the deputy headmaster and dinner lady.

WHAT WE CAN SEE TODAY • A memorial garden has now replaced the space in which the school stood more than 53 years ago. The remnants of the coal tip can no longer be seen.