Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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17 disasters in the 1830s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Jarrow Colliery explosion, 1830 At 5.40 a.m. on 3 August 1830 gas exploded in the Bensham seam at Jarrow Colliery, killing 42 men and boys. Seventy of the 120 men and boys in the pit were in the Bensham seam, where the hewers had broken into a fissure from which gas suddenly issued.	3 August 1830	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	42
Haydock explosion, 1831 In May 1831 an explosion of 'inflammable air' in a coal pit at Haydock killed ten or more colliers, most of them children. They were buried at St Thomas's, Ashton-in-Makerfield, between 18 and 24 May.	May 1831	Explosion	Lancashire	10
Willington Colliery Bensham seam explosion, 1831 On 20 September 1831 gas from a large blower in the newly opened Bensham seam at Willington Colliery, on Tyneside, forced its way through the water left to drown it, rose into the High Main and fired at the men's candles. Eight were killed, four men and four boys.	20 September 1831	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	8
Croft Pit explosion, 1831 At about three o'clock on the morning of Saturday 12 November 1831 firedamp exploded in the Croft Pit at Whitehaven, killing 22 men and boys outright; another brought up alive died soon after. No one in the district where it began survived to say how it happened.	12 November 1831	Explosion	Cumbria	22
Haydock explosion, 1832 In 1832 a second explosion of inflammable air in a Haydock coal pit killed six, all of them sixteen or younger. They were buried together at St Thomas's, Ashton-in-Makerfield.	1832	Explosion	Lancashire	6
Newbottle Colliery boiler explosion, 1832 A steam-engine boiler on Lord Durham's colliery railway at Philadelphia, Newbottle, exploded on the morning of 15 June 1832 while men were repairing it, wrecking the engine house and killing at least eight people, among them children of a family living nearby.	15 June 1832	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	8
Springwell Colliery Explosion, 1833 An explosion in the B Pit at Springwell Colliery on 9 May 1833 killed forty-seven people instantly. Only nine or ten were adults; the rest were boys, some of them eight years old. The mine had been examined and declared safe that morning, and safety lamps ordered as a precaution when a blower was pricked. Thirty-nine of the dead were still underground the following night.	9 May 1833	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	47
Wallsend Colliery Explosion At about two o'clock on the afternoon of 18 June 1835, an explosion tore through Wallsend Colliery on Tyneside and killed 102 men and boys — the worst of ten separate disasters recorded at a pit already notorious for them. The youngest of the dead was eight. Among them were trappers and putters of eleven, seventeen and nineteen, and whole families were hit: the Applebys lost Henry, a putter of seventeen, and James, a trapper of eleven. Many of the dead lie in unmarked graves in the churchyard of St Peter's, Wallsend.	18 June 1835	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	102
Burdon Main Colliery explosion, 1835 On the afternoon of 19 November 1835 gas fired at the candle of the deputy James Campbell in the Low Main seam of Burdon Main Colliery, North Shields, killing eleven, three men and eight boys. A trap door had been left open by a ten-year-old trapper, Joseph Arkley, who was among the dead.	19 November 1835	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	11
Hetton Downs Pit Explosion, 1836 An explosion in the Downs pit of the Hetton colliery on 28 January 1836 killed twenty and left another man so badly scorched there was little hope for him. The inquest found the cause was a boy failing to keep a ventilation trap door shut — and heard that the men preferred candles to the Davy lamp because candles gave a better light.	28 January 1836	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	20
Hebburn Colliery Explosion, 1836 At about 7 a.m. on 19 July 1836 two explosions in quick succession struck the B Pit of Hebburn Colliery, on the Tyne, which had not been fully worked for some time. Cuthbert Short, 30, and a boy of seven, Thomas Lamb, were killed, and the overman Thomas Fairs died of his burns.	19 July 1836	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	3
Blackrod Colliery explosion, 1836 On 6 October 1836 firedamp exploded in Mr Blundell's pit at Blackrod, near Bolton, soon after the fireman, Thomas Challender, had made his inspection and let the men down. The pit was worked with safety lamps, but naked lights were taken in as well. Twelve died, the fireman among them, and five of the dead were women and girls, the youngest ten. Inquests under three coroners returned accidental death.	6 October 1836	Explosion	Greater Manchester	12
Springwell Colliery Explosion, 1837 Four years after an explosion killed forty-seven at Springwell, the ventilation had been rebuilt and the pitmen no longer thought the mine fiery. On 6 December 1837 a second explosion in the Hutton seam killed twenty-seven of the twenty-nine men and boys at work in that district. The likeliest cause was a safety lamp dropped across the rolley way and run over.	6 December 1837	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	27
Lowca Colliery John Pit explosion, 1838 An explosion of firedamp at John Pit, said to have been ignited by the light of the overman making his inspection, killed forty men and boys waiting at the pit bottom and in the shaft; the fireman and deputy afterwards went down alone before the men.	24 October 1838	Explosion	Cumbria	40
Wallsend Colliery explosion, 1838 On the evening of 19 December 1838 the G or Church Pit of Wallsend Colliery fired while eleven shifters were repairing and propping the roads after the hewers had gone. All eleven were killed, three years after an explosion at the same colliery had killed more than a hundred.	1838	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	11
William Pit Explosion, 1839 Firedamp that had gone undetected since the previous Saturday exploded when a boy carrying a naked candle followed the overman into workings a mile and a half from the shaft — killing between 21 and 23 men and boys, most from one small stretch of New Houses.	18 February 1839	Explosion	Cumbria	23
St Hilda’s Colliery Explosion On the morning of 28 June 1839 an explosion tore through the western workings of St Hilda’s pit in the middle of South Shields, killing 51 men and boys. Most died not in the blast but of afterdamp. The inquest returned accidental death with a recommendation that working coal mines by candlelight be abandoned in favour of lamps, and a Committee for the Investigation of Accidents in Mines was formed in the town shortly afterwards — its report weighed the merits of the various safety lamps and did much to improve mine safety nationally.	28 June 1839	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	51