Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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56 disasters in the 1860s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Higham Colliery explosion, 1860 On the afternoon of 15 February 1860 gas from the goaves fired at a boy's candle at the northern limit of Messrs Charlesworth's Higham Colliery, near Barnsley, killing thirteen men and lads. The colliers had locked Davy lamps, but the horse drivers were allowed candles within yards of the goaves.	15 February 1860	Explosion	South Yorkshire	13
Burradon Colliery Explosion Seventy-six men and boys were killed at Burradon Colliery on the afternoon of Friday 2 March 1860. A first, smaller explosion in the southern workings sent the boys running for the shaft; twenty minutes later, as the overman William Kirkley led a party back in, a far larger one blew debris clean out of the shaft. Twenty-five men and boys were found together three hundred yards in, thirteen of them hand in hand, all dead of suffocation. The inquest ran to 18 April and failed to reach a conclusive verdict.	2 March 1860	Explosion	Northumberland	76
Gospel Oak Colliery explosion, 1860 On 12 May 1860 an explosion of firedamp killed two men at Gospel Oak Colliery, in the South Staffordshire coalfield, after gas was released with water from the roof of a badly laid-out gate road and ignited at a candle.	12 May 1860	Explosion	West Midlands	2
Winstanley Colliery explosion, 1860 In early August 1860 firedamp released by roof falls in pillar workings exploded in the Orrell Five Feet seam at Meyrick Bankes's Winstanley Colliery, near Wigan, killing thirteen men and boys. The inspector had condemned the ventilation as primitive, and the improvements he had asked for were unfinished.	August 1860	Explosion	Greater Manchester	13
Lower Duffryn Colliery explosion, 1860 On 6 November 1860 an explosion in the Nine Feet vein of the Lower Duffryn Colliery, near Mountain Ash, killed twelve men and boys. It was the third fatal explosion at the colliery in a few years.	1860	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	12
Black Vein Colliery explosion, 1860 At about 9.30 a.m. on Saturday 1 December 1860 firedamp exploded in the fourth east level of the Black Vein Pit at Risca. The blast brought down great falls that cut off the ventilation, and most of the victims were killed by the afterdamp trapped behind them. More than 140 men and boys died, the worst British mining disaster recorded to that date, and the last body was not brought out until February 1861. The inquest jury found the gas had been given off suddenly in a group of stalls but could not say how it was fired; the company was wound up.	1 December 1860	Explosion	Caerphilly	146
Hetton Colliery explosion, 1860 On the evening of 20 December 1860 gas that had gathered in a nearly level boiler flue exploded in the Minor Pit of the Hetton Coal Company's colliery at Hetton-le-Hole, killing 22 men and boys. Some 200 had just come up, and only the stonemen and shifters were below.	20 December 1860	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	22
Brereton Colliery Explosion Seven men and boys were killed by an explosion of firedamp in one of the shafts of the Brereton collieries near Rugeley on 6 February 1861. A fault had been struck, water had flooded the lower seams and had risen far enough, a few days earlier, to cut the connection between the two shafts and so end the ventilation of the sump. The managers knew it and did nothing. Gas gathered under the scaffold covering the sump, escaped as dirt was cleared from it and fired at a workman's candle. Two men were found in the sump and five more, suffocated by afterdamp, in the workings near the shaft. The colliery had no artificial ventilation of any kind.	6 February 1861	Explosion	Staffordshire	7
Linnyshaw Colliery Explosion, 1861 An explosion in the Rams mine at Linnyshaw Colliery, Worsley, killed nine colliers; the coroner could find no evidence of how the gas had been ignited.	27 February 1861	Explosion	Greater Manchester	9
Blaengwawr Colliery Explosion, 1861 Firedamp exploded in the four-feet workings of Blaengwawr Colliery at Aberaman at about twenty past seven on the morning of Friday 8 March 1861, killing thirteen men and boys and seriously injuring seven more. Between 250 and 300 were underground. The inquest found the gas had accumulated because a ventilation door between two cross-headings had been left open by a person unknown, and asked that safety lamps be used throughout the colliery as the Government Inspector had already recommended.	8 March 1861	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	13
Shevington Colliery explosion, 1861 On 1 November 1861 a labourer who had kept his lamp key from his days as a fireman unlocked a lamp to relight another man's, and fired gas at the Prince Albert Pit of John Taylor and Son's Shevington Colliery, near Wigan, killing thirteen. The inspector blamed defective ventilation and lax discipline.	1 November 1861	Explosion	Greater Manchester	13
Gethin Colliery explosion, 1862 Gas ignited at a naked flame in the No. 19 heading of Gethin's Lower pit on 19 February 1862, killing 47 men and boys. The inquest found the ventilation deficient and returned a verdict of manslaughter against the manager; a grand jury then found no case to answer.	19 February 1862	Explosion	Merthyr Tydfil	47
Westwood Colliery explosion, 1862 At about 8 a.m. on 10 April 1862 gas driven from a large goaf by a fall of roof fired at a naked light at the far end of the south workings of Newton, Chambers and Co.'s Westwood Colliery, near Sheffield, killing six of about 200 below. The mine was fiery, yet the colliers were allowed candles.	10 April 1862	Explosion	South Yorkshire	6
Lletty Shenkin Colliery explosion, 1862 Between seven and eight on Saturday morning, 9 August 1862, gas exploded in No. 7 cross heading of the six-foot vein in the new No. 2 pit at Lletty Shenkin, Cwmbach. The inquest jury blamed a labourer, Richard Thomas, for tampering with his safety lamp or striking a match. Five died.	9 August 1862	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	5
Walker Colliery explosion, 1862 Word reached Newcastle on the morning of 22 November 1862 that Walker Colliery had exploded and that sixteen of the people working in it -- fourteen men and two boys -- were dead. The pit belonged to the Corporation of Newcastle and was worked under lease. Among the dead were two pairs of brothers, and several of the men left widows with young families; some were buried in Christ Church churchyard at Walker.	22 November 1862	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	16
Edmunds Main Colliery explosion, 1862 On 8 December 1862 a shot fired at Edmunds Main Colliery, Worsbrough Dale, lit gas and set the coal on fire, and the explosions that followed killed between 54 and 59 men and boys. The pit had to be flooded, the bodies stayed underground until October 1863, and the families won the first compensation paid in England for an underground explosion.	8 December 1862	Explosion	South Yorkshire	54
Nixon's Navigation Colliery Explosion, 1863 An explosion at Nixon's Navigation Colliery, Mountain Ash, at about five o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday 7 February 1863 killed two colliers, Evan Morgan and Samuel Jones. The inquest heard that a pipe and tobacco were found, and concluded that the men had been smoking in the roadway on their way to their stall.	7 February 1863	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	2
Coxlodge Colliery explosion, 1863 An explosion of firedamp at the Bower pit of Coxlodge Colliery, north of Newcastle, on 6 March 1863 killed nineteen men by Wikipedia's account and twenty-two by the Durham Mining Museum's. The museum records the ignition as caused by naked lights. The colliery, developed by Matthew Bell and Charles Brandling about 1810, closed in 1894 and its men went to other pits nearby.	6 March 1863	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	19
Morfa Colliery explosion, 1863 Shortly after 10 a.m. on Saturday 17 October 1863 firedamp exploded in the western workings of Morfa Colliery at Taibach, killing about forty of the forty-three men and boys in the affected heading, most by chokedamp. Heavy falls delayed the recovery until the end of November. The Inspector thought gas had gathered in the goaf after falls disturbed the ventilation, but could not say how it fired; in the weeks before, the men had reported ghostly omens.	17 October 1863	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	40
Wynnstay Colliery Explosion (1863) A fireman firing a shot in an upbrow ignited accumulated gas, killing thirteen men and boys and injuring six more -- the first of three fatal explosions to strike this colliery within a decade.	9 December 1863	Explosion	Wrexham	13
Gin Pit explosion, 1863 A firedamp explosion at Gin Pit, Maesteg on the Saturday after Christmas Day 1863 killed fourteen men and boys — the most serious mining accident in the Maesteg district — after the pit went unexamined for almost 36 hours and a young, inexperienced fireman failed to inspect it before the shift began.	26 December 1863	Explosion	Bridgend	14
Glyn Pits explosion, 1864 A firedamp explosion in the Rock Vein coal at Glyn Pits, Pontypool killed four — three men and a boy haulier — on 1 June 1864, after both ventilation doors on the heading were left open, cutting off the air to the face.	1 June 1864	Explosion	Torfaen	4
Snydale Colliery sinking explosion On 9 June 1864 an explosion of firedamp in a sinking shaft killed two sinkers and burned a third at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract in the West Riding.	9 June 1864	Explosion	West Yorkshire	2
Seghill Colliery explosion, 1864 Late on the night of 8 September 1864 gas exploded in the Low Main seam of Joseph Laycock's Seghill Colliery, Northumberland, killing seven, among them a putter of sixteen and a timber leader of seventy. The jury blamed an injured lamp; the inspector could not say where the explosion began.	1864	Explosion	Northumberland	7
Clough Hall Colliery explosion, 1865 On 1 March 1865 a shot fired in a working known to hold gas caused an explosion in the Bullhurst seam at Kinnersley and Co.'s Clough Hall Colliery, Kidsgrove, killing five. The inspector called the shot perfect madness, but magistrates dismissed the case against the manager.	1 March 1865	Explosion	—	5
Clay Cross Colliery accident of 1865 A firedamp explosion in the Black Shale coal of Clay Cross Colliery's No. 4 Pit killed eight men on 3 May 1865; the Inspector traced the gas to a fissure in the stall floor that ordinary ventilation could not dilute, ignited by a naked light.	3 May 1865	Explosion	Derbyshire	8
Fochriw Colliery explosion, 1865 On Wednesday morning, 10 May 1865, firedamp exploded in the stall of James Jones at the Dowlais Iron Company's new pit at Fochriw, one of the deepest in the district. Fourteen men and boys were burned, some so badly they were carried home on planks; a boy of fifteen died.	1865	Explosion	Caerphilly	1
Bedwellty Pits Explosion, 1865 An explosion at the No. 1 pit of Bedwellty Pits near Tredegar on 16 June 1865 killed twenty-seven miners, six of them boys under sixteen. It was reported to the country in the Illustrated London News, which printed engravings both of the colliery and of the colliers' funeral.	16 June 1865	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	27
Gethin Colliery explosion, 1865 Three years and ten months after the Lower pit killed 47 men, Gethin's Upper pit exploded on 20 December 1865 and killed 34 more. John Moody, the manager held responsible for the first explosion and never tried for it, was found culpably negligent again — and acquitted again.	20 December 1865	Explosion	Merthyr Tydfil	34
High Brooks Colliery explosion, 1866 Early on 23 January 1866 firedamp exploded in the Four Foot seam at Turner and Evans's High Brooks Colliery, Park Lane, Ashton-in-Makerfield, killing thirty men and boys. The fireman had just finished his rounds and found everything 'clear as a bell'.	23 January 1866	Explosion	Greater Manchester	30
Garswood Park Colliery explosion, 1866 A shot fired in Richard Swift's working place in the Little Delf mine at David Bromilow's Garswood Park Colliery, Ashton-in-Makerfield, ignited firedamp on 4 May 1866. Between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and eighty people were underground; twelve were killed at once and four of those brought out alive died afterwards. Richard Swift himself, his brothers Peter and William, and John Swift are all on the roll of the dead; so are a boy of eleven and two of twelve.	4 May 1866	Explosion	Merseyside	16
Cwmtillery Colliery explosion, 1866 An explosion of firedamp at the Cwmtillery pits on 18 May 1866 burned three men, a father and son among them, who died over the following weeks; the inquest jury blamed a canvas ventilation door left open.	18 May 1866	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	3
Lakes Pit explosion, Dukinfield, 1866 At about 8 a.m. one June morning an explosion of firedamp in the Black Mine at F. D. P. Astley's Lakes Pit, or Victoria Colliery, Dukinfield, killed 38 of the seventy-odd men and boys below. The pit was worked with safety lamps, but the boys carried naked lights against the colliery's rules.	June 1866	Explosion	Greater Manchester	38
Pelton Colliery explosion, 1866 Twenty-four men and boys died at Pelton Colliery near Chester-le-Street on 31 October 1866 in an explosion of firedamp which the Durham Mining Museum records as ignited by a safety lamp. It was the second disaster at the pit that year: five had been killed by tubs in January.	31 October 1866	Explosion	County Durham	24
Oaks Colliery explosion, 1866 Two explosions on successive days at Oaks Colliery killed 388 men and boys — 361 miners and 27 rescuers — and for nearly fifty years it was the worst mining disaster in English history.	12-13 December 1866	Explosion	South Yorkshire	388
Talk o' th' Hill Colliery explosion, 1866 On 13 December 1866 an explosion of gas in the Banbury seam at Talk o' th' Hill Colliery, near Kidsgrove, killed 91 men and boys. The jury found that gas had gathered after a train of coal upset in a doorway and was fired by a naked light unlawfully exposed.	13 December 1866	Explosion	Staffordshire	91
Abercwmboi Colliery Explosion, 1866 On 24 December 1866 an explosion of gas at Abercwmboi Colliery, in the Aberdare valley, killed three men: Richard Harris, William Lightfoot and Ebenezer Morris.	24 December 1866	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	3
Mesne Lea Colliery explosion, 1867 At 6.30 a.m. on 30 May 1867 gas that had gathered overnight in the Rams Seven Feet mine at Peter Nightingale and Co.'s Mesne Lea Colliery, Worsley, fired when a man went in with a naked light ahead of the fireman's morning examination. Seven were killed.	30 May 1867	Explosion	Greater Manchester	7
Garswood Park Colliery explosion, 1867 Fifteen months after the first explosion, the Little Delf mine at Garswood Park blew again about noon on 20 August 1867, killing fourteen — everyone at work in the top level. Among them was Joseph Topping, the sixty-four-year-old fireman who had survived 1866 and who had been seen a few minutes before going to fire a shot for the collier Henry Winstanley. Peter Higson's own test in the workings afterwards showed the place foul within ten minutes of the brattice coming down.	20 August 1867	Explosion	Merseyside	14
Ferndale Colliery explosion, 1867 Two consecutive explosions at Ferndale Colliery's No.1 pit killed 178 men and boys on 8 November 1867, after a gas accumulation the fireman had already warned the manager about ignited from a naked light — one of the worst disasters in Welsh mining history.	8 November 1867	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	178
Swanwick Colliery shot-firing explosion, 1868 An explosion of blasting powder while shot-firing in hard ground at Swanwick Colliery on 3 March 1868 killed two young colliers.	3 March 1868	Explosion	Derbyshire	2
Swan Lane Colliery explosion, 1868 On 'reckoning Monday', 17 August 1868, when only day men were in Swan Lane Colliery, Hindley Green, the collier Charles Abbott fired gas with his naked light in an unbratticed working place in the Four Feet. Two men who went in after him died in the afterdamp. The owner was fined for neglecting the first general rule.	17 August 1868	Explosion	Greater Manchester	3
Wynnstay Colliery Explosion (1868) An explosion following the replacement of a ventilation door with a brick stopping killed ten men -- the second of three fatal explosions to strike this colliery within a decade.	30 September 1868	Explosion	Wrexham	10
Hindley Green Colliery explosion, 1868 On 25 November 1868 firedamp exploded in the Arley mine at John Scowcroft & Co.'s Hindley Green Colliery near Wigan, killing 62 men and boys. Gas had gathered in a stopped slant and was fired by the flame of a blown-out gunpowder shot next to it.	25 November 1868	Explosion	Greater Manchester	62
Clandown Colliery Gunpowder Explosion (1868) Two colliers were fatally injured by a gunpowder explosion caused by misusing blasting powder meant only for the roof, on coal itself.	27 November 1868	Explosion	Somerset	2
Queen Pit Explosion, 1868 An explosion at the Queen Pit, part of the Haydock Collieries complex, killed around two dozen men and boys after a blown-out shot ignited accumulated firedamp in an area with damaged ventilation cloth.	30 December 1868	Explosion	Lancashire	26
Fforchaman Colliery explosion A collier at Fforchaman bored a hole and charged it with powder on the first morning back after an idle day, in a pit where blasting was prohibited under any circumstances. He had been refused permission to use powder a few days before and was cautioned not to fire the shot. He fired it, and the firedamp explosion killed him and two others and burned eleven more.	5 January 1869	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	3
Springwell Colliery explosion, 1869 At about 2 a.m. on 29 January 1869 a hewer at John Bowes and Partners' Springwell Colliery fired a shot after refusing a safety lamp and being warned of gas, and the Low Main seam exploded, killing five including the deputy. Afterwards the pit was worked only with safety lamps.	1869	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	5
Mynydd Newydd Colliery explosion, 1869 An explosion of gas at Mynydd Newydd Colliery, near Swansea, on 26 March 1869 killed three colliers, two of them brothers; one of the dead had taken a candle past a danger signal.	26 March 1869	Explosion	Swansea	3
High Brooks Colliery explosion, 1869 At about seven in the morning of 1 April 1869, a making-up day with the whole workforce below, a blown-out shot fired gas in the Orrell Four Feet mine at Mercer and Evans's High Brooks Colliery, Park Lane, killing 37. It was the pit's second disaster in three years.	1 April 1869	Explosion	Greater Manchester	37
Llanerch Colliery Explosion, 1869 At about half past eight on the night of Tuesday 25 May 1869, firedamp exploded in the Sinking Pit at Cwmnantddu — the colliery later known as Llanerch — killing all seven men who were making roads in the deep, some 700 to 800 yards from the shaft bottom. The workings were generally supposed to be free of gas and, once tested with a safety lamp, were worked with open lights. Twenty-one years later the same colliery, still using naked lights, killed 176.	25 May 1869	Explosion	Torfaen	7
Ferndale Colliery explosion, 1869 A second major explosion at Ferndale Colliery, in the fiery Four Foot Seam, killed 53 men and boys on 10 June 1869, less than two years after the pit's 1867 disaster.	10 June 1869	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	53
Queen Pit Explosion, 1869 A second, much larger explosion at Haydock's Queen Pit, less than seven months after the December 1868 explosion at the same pit, killed 56-57 men and boys after a shot ignited firedamp released by a roof fall in a working known as Pilkington's place.	21 July 1869	Explosion	Lancashire	57
Newbury Colliery explosion, 1869 On 22 October 1869, as the men were going down, firedamp exploded on the Mackintosh side of the Westbury Iron Company's Newbury Colliery at Coleford in the Somerset coalfield. Eleven died, and the jury found three officials guilty of manslaughter.	22 October 1869	Explosion	Somerset	11
Hendreforgan Colliery Explosion, 1869 A firedamp explosion shortly after thirteen men and boys started work killed six of them, the youngest an eleven-year-old door-boy. The pit was worked with open lamps and poorly ventilated, and a change to the airways days before had left three workings on one air current. The inquest jury asked the coroner to reprimand the owner, Alexander Bain, for putting the colliery in incompetent hands.	11 November 1869	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	6
Low Hall Colliery explosion, 1869 About four in the afternoon of Monday 15 November 1869 a blown-out shot fired gas in the Six Feet seam of the Moss Hall Coal Company's No. 5 pit at Platt Bridge near Wigan. Twenty-seven died. The coal caught fire, and with no other water to hand the owners tapped the Liverpool Corporation's Rivington aqueduct, which ran within a few yards of the pit, and drowned the mine. Weeks passed before all the bodies could be recovered and the inquest could not conclude until the water was out.	15 November 1869	Explosion	Greater Manchester	27