Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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5 disasters in the 1760s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Fatfield Colliery explosion, 1763 In 1763 an explosion of gas at Fatfield Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed fifteen or more people. After it the first steel mills used in the district were brought from Whitehaven to light the workings.	1763	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	15
Walker Colliery explosion, 1765 In April 1765 Walker Colliery, near Newcastle, fired at a depth of about a hundred fathoms and badly burnt the men at work, none fatally. The next day overmen and others went down to examine the mine and it fired a second time, killing eight of them and seventeen horses.	2 April 1765	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	8
Walker Colliery explosion, 1766 Ten people were killed at Walker Colliery on the Tyne on 18 March 1766, eleven months after an explosion at the same pit had killed eight. The Durham Mining Museum records both among the colliery's disasters and names the dead; neither entry gives a cause for the 1766 accident.	18 March 1766	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	10
Lambton Colliery explosion, 1766 On 22 August 1766, just after a hundred men had come off work at Lambton Colliery near Chester-le-Street, masons and labourers building a partition underground asked for a lamp to be let down; it fired the gas, and the explosion blew men and horses up the shaft, killing six.	1766	Explosion	County Durham	6
Fatfield Colliery explosion, 1767 In March 1767 a colliery near Fatfield, 80 fathoms deep, exploded while all the hands were at work, killing 39. The Newcastle Journal noted that it had been asked not to report such accidents, and dropped the subject.	March 1767	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	39