Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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5 disasters.

• Parys Mountain boiler explosion, 1870
  19 October 1870 · Explosion · Anglesey
  A large Cornish boiler at the ore-crushing plant exploded during a lunch break, demolishing the building; accounts from the same local research group differ sharply on the death toll, citing either one confirmed death with 8–10 injured, or seven men killed.
• Chatterley Whitfield (Whitfield) Colliery explosion
  7 February 1881 · Explosion · Staffordshire
  A smithy fire spread through the ventilation flue and ignited gas underground, and further explosions followed when ventilation was cut to fight the fire — sources give the final death toll as anywhere from 21 to 28.
• Mill Close Mine firedamp explosion
  3 November 1887 · Explosion · Derbyshire · 5 fatalities
  Five miners died when a shot-firer's naked flame ignited firedamp gas that had already been detected and flagged as dangerous in the days before the blast.
• Nantymwyn dynamite explosion, 1892
  28 March 1892 · Explosion · Carmarthenshire · 2 fatalities
  Two Cornish miners, William Beswetherick and John Lewarne, died after a box of gelatine dynamite they were handling caught fire and partly exploded underground — an incident that prompted a formal report to the Home Secretary by HM Inspector of Explosives.
• Big Pit explosion (1908)
  11 December 1908 · Explosion · Torfaen · 3 fatalities
  A localised underground explosion killed three men.