KEY POINTS:
Johnny Walker was relaxing at his West Coast home when the call came through at 10.10am.
It was the urgent voice of his superintendent, Archie Auld. "Green [section] has blown. It's an explosion. I'll meet you at the Cobden Bridge in the rescue van ... in 10 minutes."
Mr Walker remembers how he and fellow mine rescue team member Terry Crowley hurriedly gathered up their rescue gear but failed to make it in time to catch a bus and had to go by taxi instead.
They did not know then that they were being called to one of New Zealand's worst disasters, at the state-owned Strongman mine, 11km northeast of Greymouth.
Yesterday marked 40 years since the explosion ripped through part of the coalmine and claimed 19 lives.
Mr Walker, now 70, will be among many former mine workers and widows commemorating the event in Greymouth today.
After reaching the mine that morning, Mr Walker and his colleagues faced the terrible task of recovering the bodies. "The bodies ... some were methane gas poisoning ... most of them had no skin on their faces ... and all black from the coal dust.
"It wasn't a very good day for me. I was that tired when I finished."
Two months of hard work were to follow in clearing the mine.
"I couldn't sleep and you didn't know what to do. You see somebody down town and they look like one of the jokers you brought out [from the mine]. It still comes back to you sometimes. I don't know why."
The bodies of two of the dead workers could not be recovered and remain entombed in the now-sealed mine.
The disaster took a heavy toll on the mine rescue workers but life had to go on. "There's only a few of us left now," Mr Walker said. "A lot of us are gone."
A commission of inquiry found regulations had not been followed in two instances at the mine, and the Government was forced to pay out between £200,000 and £250,000 in compensation.
Mr Walker and Greymouth Mayor Tony Kokshoorn will lay memorial wreaths today at the Greymouth cemetery. Representatives of Solid Energy, which manages much of the mining on the West Coast, will also be involved.
Mr Walker is looking forward to meeting his old mates, but admits it will be a sad time: "It is going to bring a lot of memories back."
