were rescued because of improved equipment. Prior to the blast, a mine train was hauling a load of fine coal dust up to the surface of the Number 4 colliery for removal from the pithead, and encountered a heavy flow of ventilation air being forced down the shaft by surface fans. The flow of air disturbed the contents of the ascending train cars and spread fine (and highly flammable) dust throughout the air of the shafts of No. 4. Before the train reached the surface, several cars broke loose and ran back down the slope of No. 4, derailing along the way and hitting a power line, causing it to arc and igniting the coal dust at the level (below surface). The resulting explosion blew the slope up to the surface where the additional oxygen created a huge blast, which leveled the bankhead on the surface – where the coal is hauled out from the mine in an angled shaft into a vertical building (the coal is then dropped into railway cars). Most of the devastation was sustained by the surface buildings, but many miners were trapped in the shaft along with the derailed train cars and fallen support timbers and other items damaged by the explosion. Heroically, Drägermen (rescue miners with breathing equipment) and barefaced miners (without such protection) entered the No. 4 to aid their colleagues. International media coverage of the 1956 explosion was largely overshadowed by the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the Suez Crisis, which happened at about the same time. Nevertheless, Canadian and local media gave extensive coverage to the 1956 disaster. After the rescue effort, the connected No. 4 and No. 2 collieries were sealed for several months to deprive the fires of oxygen. In January 1957, the bodies of the remaining casualties were recovered from the pit, and No. 4 colliery closed forever. One of the rescuers, physician Arnold Burden, was also involved in the 1958 disaster. 1958 bump The events The 1958 bump killed 75 miners on October 23, 1958, out of 174 working at the No. 2 colliery. The accident was the most severe "bump" (underground seismic event) in North American mining history and injured Springhill residents and devastated the town's economy. Springhill's No. 2 colliery was one of the deepest coal mines in the world. Sloping shafts in length led to a vast labyrinth of galleries more than below the