FOREST freeminer James Britton was among the rescuers who battled to try to save the doomed Welsh miners at the Gleision Colliery.

The assistant deputy gaveller and trained rescue worker was called in on the night of the explosion.

But as he made his way down for a second shift the following day he learned hope had turned to tragedy and he was asked to help recover the bodies of the four men.

James, 39, who works the Phoenix Mine near Cannop and is from a mining family, had to crawl through the cold wet tunnels to reach the disaster scene and says the wet conditions and timber supports are similar to many Forest mines.

As a member of the South Wales arm of the Mines Rescue Service, James, pictured, was arranging a health and safety training exercise in the Forest when he learned of the explosion. By midnight he found himself working with a team manning the pumps brought in to clear the water from the Welsh mine which was flooded to roof level.

"At that point it was very much a search and rescue operation and everybody was very upbeat and hopeful," he said.

By lunchtime on Friday most of the water was gone and he was asked to join a dig-out team.

"Even though they had found the first casualty it was still very much a search and rescue operation," he said."But by the time we entered the mine it was apparent things were looking more serious and it turned into a recovery operation."

An appeal fund has been launched in memory of the miners, Phillip Hill, 45, Garry Jenkins, 39, David Powell, 50, and Charles Breslin, 62.