Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39, were killed when a planned explosion brought a fatal flood into the mine in September Ten years on, the men who went into the dark to try to save their fellow miners still bear the scars of what happened.
Here two of them tell their story. Stuart Richardson got a phone call on the night of 15 September , telling him he would be heading to Gleision colliery in Neath Port Talbot the following day to rescue the four men thought to be trapped. We picked up three other guys on the way," he said. We took a Welsh rescuer along, making a team of five.
And in we went. I wanted to go in there and bring those guys out. It's not that I wanted to be a hero, but my job was to find them no matter what. That evening, just 16 hours after setting off, Stuart was back at his local pub in Mansfield after one of the most taxing days of his 34 years in mining.
It was then what he had seen and been through became too much to cope with. If you can imagine someone who's got dirty has had a bath, when the water is let out you get a line around the bath. Above the line was all dust, and below it the coal was shining.
Eventually, one of his team spotted part of a high-visibility jacket. They tunnelled through the debris and found the body of Charles Breslin. Stuart knew from other operations what it was like to find men trapped but alive, and still hoped for a miracle. And to grieve it was. When the last body had been recovered, his team of four headed back the midlands, stopping at a local shop for a couple of cans of energy drink before the long drive home, where the tears began.
Stuart lost his job as a mines rescue officer in , and now works as a painter and decorator for his local council. There was no light, there was nothing at all. With the roaring of the water getting closer, Jake realised he had no time to go back. He just managed to make it back up the main drift before collapsing exhausted on to the ground.
The water had stopped just behind him, flooding the tunnel right up to the roof. Alex, now aged 23, was in class when he had a text from his mum, asking if his dad was working in a mine. Over the next two days, Mines Rescue Service workers from across the UK worked tirelessly to find and rescue the men, but in vain.
Garry Jenkins was the first of the men to be found. A court later heard he had died seconds after the water reached him. In , another survivor - the mine's manager, Malcolm Fyfield - and the mine owners MNS Mining were found not guilty of manslaughter charges after a three-month trial at Swansea Crown Court.
In the same year, the acting coroner for Swansea decided not to pursue inquests for the four men. We were working together. And he's not here. I can't explain to him," he says. Alex says he will be marking the 10th anniversary of his dad Garry's death on 15 September by going for quiet drinks with his friends, just as his dad would have done.
He has never met Jake but understands the survivor's guilt he carries and plans to meet him - away from journalists and news crews - to reassure him it's not his fault. Both men, along with other relatives of the four men who died at Gleision, are calling for an inquest, to finally answer the questions they feel have never gone away. I really, really am glad to be doing it. For Alex, his quest for answers is inspired not just by his dad but also by his grandfather Malcolm Jenkins, a former miner who passed away in Me, my father, my grandfather.
If this is something I could take on my shoulders and push forward on my own, then it's something I will do. Six seconds of horror at Gleision. Miners' families welcome support. Gleision families seeking answers. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Small mines such as Gleision tend to open and close as the price of coal rises and falls.
If market conditions are not judged favourable, the pit is mothballed and the men laid off. Fyfield's barrister, Elwen Evans QC, claimed investigators had become fixated within hours of the incident on the theory that Fyfield had recklessly ordered the blasting even though it made no sense — why would he have put not only his colleagues but himself at risk?
He could not have known the water was there. The manager was described during his trial as the "Alex Ferguson" of the small mines world, vastly experienced, respected and tough. Fyfield comes from a family of miners and colliery owners and in , aged 23, followed his father and grandfather into the industry.
He obtained qualifications from a technical college in Carmarthen, south-west Wales, and went on to run a number of small drift mines in the area. He was known as a fastidious manager, telling the jury: "I have always been extremely careful. I take my responsibilities as a mine manager to a very high standard because of the serious nature of the industry. I do not take short cuts.
Fyfield was also a hands-on boss, never forcing workers into conditions that he himself would have avoided — which was why he was in the mine on the day of the tragedy and only just escaped with his own life.
In Fyfield, a father of two, retired from the industry because of the lung condition pneumoconiosis, often caused by the inhalation of dust, and back problems — common ailments among miners. But he missed his life underground. He defied his family's pleas and insisted on returning to mining.
He could not resist the temptation of trying to turn around the fortunes of Gleision, one of the last small-scale drift mines in south Wales, and took over management there shortly before the disaster. Fyfield managed to crawl out of the mine and is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which manifests itself as a terror of the sight or sound of running water — from a hillside stream to a bath tap.
Relatives and friends say he is a shadow of the hard, proud miner he once was. The families of the men who perished in the Gleision tragedy have spoken of the trauma of hearing there had been an accident at the pit, the agony of waiting for news — and painted a picture of four tough miners who loved the challenge and the camaraderie of a working life underground.
Alex Jenkins, now 16, was at school not far from the mine when he saw a helicopter flying towards the mountain where his father, Garry Jenkins, worked. I went to my grandparents.
That's where we waited, I got no sleep for two days; the family were in tears. I was in my grandmother's house when I was told a body had been found. He said: "He was my best friend, we were like two peas in a pod. He used to take me to rugby, we would go out on the motorbikes together, we would go caravanning. We would do literally anything together — as long as it was me and him.
He always told me he was proud of me — I hope he still is; proud that I am trying to get on in life with him always in my mind. Lynette Powell, the wife of David Powell, admitted she sometimes felt rage at what had happened.
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