FORTY years ago 19 miners were killed and 13 injured in an explosion in Hapton Valley's number two pit. Tomorrow survivors will join family and friends to remember the fateful event on March 22, 1962. Reporter KATHY BOOTH spoke to those involved.

MINER Archer Lee can still remember the moment he heard about the Hapton Valley pit disaster as though it was yesterday.

The 74-year-old pensioner who is one of two trustees of the Hapton Valley Disaster Fund was working in an adjacent pit when the explosion occured.

He described how the miners knew something had happened when they experienced a "short circuit" -- a phenomenon caused when some kind of force makes the air turn around for a few seconds.

"There were only two coal faces then -- number two and number five," recalled Mr Lee. "I was working on number five when someone shouted for Alan Gregory, who was the rescue man for Hapton Valley.

"He said there had been an explosion somewhere so we walked up to number two and Alan said they were going through the pit bandaging people who had been injured in the blast."

Mr Lee, of Cardwell Street, Burnley, went on: "The first man we came to was unconscious but not badly injured. Four of us got a stretcher and we fetched him out.

"We expected to go back down again but we were told that if we went down again they wouldn't know who was down the pit."

At that time, Mr Lee said it took about an hour to reach the surface from the pit as the stretcher carriers had 30 minutes walk to a drift train which would then take them up out of the mine.

These trains, which had carriages to carry up to 40 miners, worked on moving chain sloping steeply to the surface of the mine.

Many of Mr Lee's friends were among the dead or injured but he described the spirit that helped the community get over the tragedy and soon saw the miners returning to work.

He said: "Nobody said 'I'm not going down the pit again'. We weren't fetched up like that.

"And miners are closer than anybody else. If you worked with somebody you worked alongside them for years. Most of the men who died were my friends."

Fellow trustee Bob Clark, 60, was at the pit three miles away in nearby Huncoat when the disaster occured. He was among a rescue team on a training exercise.

Mr Clark said: "It's important to remember the disaster for the sake of everyone who has worked in the mining industry and have the deepest sympathy for Hapton Valley.

"In British coalfields so much life has been lost but that's the price of coal."

Hapton Valley colliery was closed and demolished in 1982.

A memorial serviceis being held at noon tomorrow at the Rossendale Road entrance of Burnley Cemetery.

The youngest people killed in the disaster was two 16-year-olds and the oldest were 55.

A book, Happy Valley No More by Jack Nadin, has just been published. All proceeds will go to the disaster fund.