Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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6 disasters in the 1790s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Sheriff Hill Colliery explosion, 1793 On 27 December 1793 an explosion in the Hope Pit at Sheriff Hill Colliery, on Gateshead Fell, killed fourteen people, the first of the colliery's recorded disasters. Almost nothing else about it survives: John Sykes's Local Records gave it a single sentence, and only four of the dead are known by name, from their burials at Lamesley church a week later.	27 December 1793	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	14
Harraton Colliery explosion, 1794 An explosion at Harraton Colliery on 11 June 1794 killed 28 men and boys, recorded in the Chester-le-Street parish burial register rather than in any surviving inquest or inspector's account — one of the earliest well-documented mass-fatality colliery explosions in the Durham coalfield.	11 June 1794	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	28
Paradise Colliery explosion, 1795 On 24 April 1795 an explosion at the Paradise colliery at Benwell, west of Newcastle, killed eleven men.	24 April 1795	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	11
Lumley Colliery explosion, 1797 On 11 April 1797 an explosion at Lumley Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed 31. It was the first of three explosions there in little more than two years, the second killing 39 in October 1799.	11 April 1797	Explosion	County Durham	31
Wallsend Colliery explosion, 1799 An explosion at Wallsend Colliery on 25 September 1799 killed thirteen men and boys, the youngest named victim thirteen years old.	25 September 1799	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	13
Lumley Colliery explosion, 1799 On 11 October 1799 a violent explosion at Lumley Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, killed 39 men and boys, two and a half years after one there had killed 31. It was reported that their bodies were never found.	11 October 1799	Explosion	County Durham	39