MineArchiveDisasters
Explosions, floods, collapses and other major incidents at UK mines — including significant post-closure incidents in abandoned workings. Each record is researched to the same standard as a mine or terminology entry, not just a casualty count.
7 disasters in the 2010s, of 505.
| Disaster | Date | Type | Region | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kellingley Colliery gas explosion, 2010 A methane explosion in Kellingley Colliery's 501's District during the evening shift on 23 November 2010 forced the evacuation of 218 miners. No one was killed or seriously injured, but a Health and Safety Executive investigation found a poorly maintained safety curtain had let an explosive gas mixture build up, and the mine's operator was later prosecuted and fined. |
23 November 2010 | Explosion | North Yorkshire | — |
| Gleision Colliery Flooding, 2011 Four miners drowned at the small drift mine Gleision Colliery when a controlled blast, intended to breach into disused flooded workings for ventilation, instead released around 650,000 gallons of water into the tunnel where seven men were working -- the worst mining disaster in Wales in three decades. |
15 September 2011 | Flooding / Inundation | Neath Port Talbot | 4 |
| Cwm Ebol Reservoir Dam Breach (2012) A landslip cracked the dam wall of Cwm Ebol quarry's old mill reservoir and blocked its sluice gates, causing water to overtop the structure and prompting the precautionary evacuation of the nearby village of Pennal. |
10 June 2012 | Surface / Tip Failure | Gwynedd | 0 |
| Daw Mill Colliery fire, 2013 An underground fire caused by spontaneous combustion broke out at Daw Mill Colliery, Britain's biggest coal producer, described as the worst underground blaze in the UK for thirty years; all 92 workers underground were safely evacuated, but the fire could not be extinguished and led directly to the mine's permanent closure and UK Coal's collapse into administration. |
22 February 2013 | Fire | Warwickshire | 0 |
| Boulby Mine underground fire, 2016 A fire involving polystyrene blocks broke out 1,100m below the sea bed and around 8km from land at Boulby potash mine in the early hours of 13 April 2016; eleven workers were found by the mine rescue team, seven of them treated in hospital for smoke inhalation and shock before being discharged the same day. No deaths. |
13 April 2016 | Fire | North Yorkshire | 0 |
| Boulby Mine gas blowout, 2016 Miner John Anderson, 56, was killed at Boulby Mine on 17 June 2016 by a sudden, powerful release of trapped gas — a 'gas blowout' around 15 metres across that displaced an estimated 1,000 tonnes of mineral, described by one expert witness as the biggest such blowout he had ever seen. It followed a separate fire at the mine only two months earlier that had injured seven workers. |
17 June 2016 | Other | North Yorkshire | 1 |
| Cavanacaw rockfall and water inrush, 2018 Over-charging with explosives brought down 150 tonnes of rock from an underground roadway roof at Cavanacaw Gold Mine, narrowly missing a worker, before the resulting unstable ground let surface water flood into the workings, further endangering the underground workforce. |
July 2018 | Collapse / Roof Fall | County Tyrone | 0 |