From the Royal Commission;
A few months before the accident as many as twenty-one water-hailers were required to keep the working-places and roads in a comfortable and passable condition.
Two special steam-pumps were placed at the bottom of the pumping-shaft that forced about 16,000 gallons of water per hour to the surface. These pumping-engines were supplied with steam from boilers on the surface.
Ferndale Colliery Tighes Hill