An investigator examines an ambulance tractor inside the Westray mine in this RCMP handout photo. The picture is one of the many entered as evidence at the trial of two former mine managers from the ill-fated colliery. It was May 9, 1992. At 5:18 a.m., far beneath the small town of Plymouth, N.S., a sudden gush of methane gas escaped from the Foord coal seam and erupted into flames. Within seconds, a huge fireball raced through the mine, stirring up coal dust that exploded in a thundering blast. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan