the BIG BUMP at Number 2

The disaster itself was called the Big Bump because it was the most severe bump in North American mining history. It was the first major international event to appear in live television broadcasts. The No. 2 colliery was one of the deepest coal mines in the world. Of the 174 miners in No. 2 colliery at the time of the bump, 74 were killed and 100 survived.

"I felt three distinct shock waves like a stick of bombs being dropped from a fighter bomber, exploding just fractions of a second apart. We all knew from the magnitude of the impact that it was a major disaster in the mines." Dr Arnold Burden.

This is a short story remembering the 1958 Bump in Springhill, Nova Scotia. The story of a teenage girl and her friends during that time is fictional, but the historic events are factual. It is based on a true story.

Susan’s brother is a miner and so is her friend’s father. By all accounts both miners have worked the afternoon shift, which is the one during which the Big Bump occurred. Susan’s account of those daily events just after the Bump gives insight into what it was like to live in a small coal mining town.