Red Ash by Roy Smith

This is about a landslide in North West USA that just happened. I know nothing about it not considering it of the same nature aas the things I generally study. But who can say?

I wrote the following in reply to a post on Sci.geo.earthquakes a Usent group dedicated to discussions of earthquakes world wide:

On Thursday, 27 March 2014 18:32:57 UTC, avag…@gmail.com  wrote:
> read that article and the side bar pops out….most comprehensive so far …..on par with England’s cost saving NO DREDGE plan.
>
> I had not seen an aerial photo showing previous slide and settle activity nor descriptions of this as inside the print. I assume reporting is somewhat tongue in check but safer from the east coast.
>
> Nor do I know who bought what land when and for ? $$$.
>
> Reporting on geology analysis….off course you have a geo analysis for your backyard…has not, again casually looking thru this, shown a after slide field analysis nor following that, communications to the people involved on how far the mtn could travel.
>
> With apologies to our friend in NZ for pursuing crit on steel reinforcing rod costs …. 
>
> I am familiar with the hills north sides and a short section of highway up the NE side. Hiking along creek bottoms n into secluded terrain, and up very conical hills either great deposits or fumaroles always walks you past unusual dirt/clay/pebble mixes not soil not stone: hard when dry, soft when damp, soluble if saturated over long time spans.
>
> One may climb straight up on a near vertical meadow….keeping in mind your patch may come lose heading down hill with you on it…..
>  Not Wales !

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Following one of the longest winters I have ever heard of in Britain We had snow through till march in 1962/63 there was a coal tip slide that killed about hundred and twenty children in a South Wales village called Aberfan.

That was in 1964 I think.
Where I live now (Stoke on Trent) we had spoil tips just like it, removed in the late 70’s I believe, the spoil used as building infill called hard-core (levelling substrate on which the concrete raft is poured. A method used as foundations for houses in western Europe.)

A friend had written a book about his experience with it and asked me to help him work on the foreword. He wanted it cut to fit one page from the three or four he had. I had only just accomplished it (he hasn’t even seen it yet.)

I don’t think he would mind me showing it. It is free advertising after all.
I took liberties with the chemistry, as I hadn’t seen the Aberfan Report. But coal mines are notoriously dangerous places.

And here is what went on between me and this friend:

I went to a writing group with Roy Smith a local author after visiting at his home and talking about getting a book published online. He came up with his latest work and we had a competition to see who could write a short article. I typed them out on a computer as he doesn’t use one and brought them to that meeting to show him.

The meet was at a local library where there is a computer bank.

***

 

 

Red Ash

 

A story of the Potteries Pyramids

 

 

Where there was a coal mine a village would develop. In my own area of North Staffordshire, there were plenty; slag heaps would loom large on the skyline, alongside a tower with a large wheel that was on the top. They looked like large black monster pyramids. Some people would compare them to the ones in Egypt, they looked the same but people have forgotten about the lives that were lost by the slaves who had to build them.

 

 

Tourists should remember the cost of human life while building them instead of admiring the structures and treasures. So when I looked at the coal waste monsters on the horizon, I remembered all the miners that were crippled or killed erecting them.

 

 

My mind wanders back to the day of the Aberfan disaster, all those innocent children and also my friend that was killed. He was brought in to bulldoze the tip of the slag heap to flatten it, but it was not going to be easy.

 

 

To explain, we have to go back to the depths of the mine where the miners would fill the tubs with coal and then send it up to the surface. Men would sort through the coal into various grades, good, not so good, and the rest would be classed as waste, so the waste would go to the tip, and that is where we get the so called “Slag Heaps” from, and that is how those black pyramids were formed.

 

 

I remember as a child, when most of us were “not so well off” we would go round collecting the odd piece of coal that had, during the separation process, fallen from the wagons. The security officer would very often chase us, but we were too quick for him, and we would go back for more coal. There were sometimes accidents, I can recall one man who was after some coal getting killed when a large piece came rolling down and crushed his skull. It did not stop us from looking for pieces of coal, and we continued to take risks in an attempt to keep warm.

 

 

On the outside of this monster which we had called the slag heap, the weather had caused it to change colour which was what in various parts of the city you see them black, black ash as it was named, it was a useful commodity to the construction trade but inside, the waste became active due to the gases and the sulphur, and also the sheer pressure created combustion. These elements created heat that turned it into what we now call the dreadful Red Ash. It was the heat and the toxics that gave it the change of colour and underneath, its dreadful smell. When it moved it would expand, and the rain would create a landslide. Its strength was enormous; it could lift houses and roads even thick concrete floors.

 

 

It broke the hearts of many a couple who had a mortgage, as their homes became uninhabitable, and they had not got any money to have them re-built or repaired, as the cost was beyond most people’s reach, and no one would consider buying a house with red ash in it because of that reason. The mortgage companies also wanted a certificate to prove that there was no red ash present in the property, or it had been removed by a reputable builder.

 

 

The councils, who had initially passed red ash as a suitable hardcore, had never tested it suitable for the purpose of using it in domestic properties. We have moved on since then, and there are now many safety rules put into place when buying properties to protect everyone involved, and we hope, save any heartache.

 

 

Standing there, in front of this “Black Monster” I was so proud that I had been chosen as the engineer to demolish it. I likened myself to John Wayne, the hero of a thousand westerns, always given the job of bringing the baddie to justice.

 

 

The baddie was the black mountain I was looking at, and I thought, “you will never harm anyone again you horrible black monster”.

 

 

How wrong I was, even ten years later it raised its head again so “John Wayne” was sent for once again.

 

 

Roy Smith.

 

 

711 words 3791 characters.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

Red Ash

 

A story of the Potteries Pyramids

 

 

 

There are few pictures of them now but spoil tips loomed large on the skyline of every mining village in North Staffordshire, alongside a tower with a large wheel. Black monster pyramids. They looked the same as the ones in Egypt but who remembers the lives lost building them?

 

 

I did!

 

I’d read the report of the Aberfan disaster, the innocent children and, soon, my friend killed by them.

 

 

Coal was graded as: good, not so good, and waste.

 

The waste was just tipped at the mine; the “Slag Heaps” I remember as a child. We were poor and would collect the spilled coal. I can recall a man killed when a large stone rolled down and crushed his skull. It didn’t stop us from taking risks.

 

 

The waste was later used as hard-core in construction but hadn’t been tested as suitable for use in domestic properties. Chemicals in it could react like slow gunpowder, turning it to Red Ash. Its strength was enormous; it could lift thick concrete floors, even houses and roads. It broke the hearts of many as their homes became uninhabitable. Who would buy an house with red ash?

 

 

I had been chosen as the engineer to demolish one; the hero of a thousand westerns, bringing down the baddie: “You won’t harm anyone again you horrible black monster”.

 

How wrong I was as ten years later it raised its head again…

 

 

235 words 1289 characters.