Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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48 disasters in the 1880s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Leycett Colliery explosion, 1880 At about half past eight on the morning of 21 January 1880 a blown-out shot fired firedamp in the Fair Lady pit at Leycett, the Crewe Coal and Iron Company's colliery near Newcastle-under-Lyme, and sixty-two of the seventy or so men below were killed. Among them were H. R. Greener, the manager appointed only in October after a previous explosion, and his son George, the underlooker. The jury found no blame attributable to anyone, and recommended that blasting with powder be discontinued altogether in fiery mines while men were working in them.	21 January 1880	Explosion	Staffordshire	62
Garngoch Colliery explosion, 1880 On 7 July 1880 firedamp exploded in the Swansea Five Feet seam at Garngoch Colliery, Gorseinon, 205 yards down, killing five colliers and a boy of fourteen. The pit was worked with naked lights. Two of the men were driving a stall through to another that had been left idle that morning after a fall, and gas was thought to have gathered there behind the fall and fired at their lamps, though the overman had found the place clear half an hour earlier.	7 July 1880	Explosion	Swansea	6
Risca New Pit Explosion, 1880 At half past one on the morning of 15 July 1880, firedamp exploded at the Risca New Pit, killing 120 men and boys. Almost all of them were repairers working through the night while the colliers were at home. The blast wrecked the engine-room at the upcast shaft and damaged the ventilating fan, delaying the rescue.	15 July 1880	Explosion	Caerphilly	120
Bersham Colliery explosion A shot fired into the coal at the far end of No. 2 West Level on the evening of 3 August 1880 ignited a blower. The colliers tried to brush it out with brattice cloth, failed, and went up for the manager. He came down with eight others to seal the district off, and partly opened an air door to clear the smoke. That cut the ventilation to the North Level, gas built up quickly and reached the flames. Nine of the nine men who had gone down died.	3 August 1880	Explosion	Wrexham	9
Seaham Colliery Explosion At about 2.30 on the morning of Wednesday 8 September 1880, an explosion — heard at the surface "like the report of a heavy cannon" — tore through the Hutton and Maudlin seams of Seaham Colliery, County Durham. Of the 231 men and boys underground, 161 were killed by the NMRS reckoning; other accounts give 164. Nearly 200 horses and ponies died with them. All three shafts were blocked by jammed cages, fires broke out underground, and 29 bodies were never recovered: the Maudlin seam was sealed with them still in it, and the men refused to go back to work until they came out.	8 September 1880	Explosion	County Durham	161
Naval (Pen-y-Craig) Colliery explosion, 1880 An explosion at Pen-y-Craig Colliery (also called Naval Steam Colliery), Penygraig, on 10 December 1880 killed 101 men and boys, one of the worst disasters of the Rhondda coalfield's early expansion; a joint inquest strongly condemned the colliery's manager, Moses Rowlands, for breaches of safety rules.	10 December 1880	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	101
Chatterley Whitfield (Whitfield) Colliery explosion 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.	7 February 1881	Explosion	Staffordshire	24
Lillydale Colliery inrush and explosion, 1881 At about 10.45 a.m. on 3 May 1881 men driving headings towards flooded old workings at Enoch Perrins's Lillydale Colliery, near Hanley, tapped the water; it drove gas from the goaf onto naked lights and the gas exploded, killing nine. The jury found the manager guilty of manslaughter.	3 May 1881	Explosion	Staffordshire	9
Abram Colliery explosion, 1881 Three minutes past noon on 19 December 1881, a report heard three miles off: firedamp had exploded in the Yard seam of the Abram Coal Company's No. 4 pit outside Wigan. Forty-one bodies were brought out and seven of those rescued alive died afterwards, making forty-eight dead — twenty-five widows and seventy-three fatherless children. The inquest jury found a sudden outburst of gas caused by weighting of the roof, but could not say how it was fired, and criticised the colliery's discipline over the relighting and relocking of lamps.	19 December 1881	Explosion	Greater Manchester	48
Lewis Merthyr (Coedcae) Colliery explosions, 1882 On Saturday 11 February 1882, pay day, with the Coedcae pit of the Lewis Merthyr Navigation Collieries empty, two men repairing the shaft were burnt to death by a fire on the cage. A second explosion, as an exploring party went down, killed four more, among them the banksman.	1882	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	6
Trimdon Grange Colliery Explosion, 1882 An explosion in the Harvey seam of Trimdon Grange Colliery on the afternoon of 16 February 1882 killed 74 men and boys, among them rescuers overcome by afterdamp that travelled through the underground connection into the neighbouring East Hetton (Kelloe) colliery.	16 February 1882	Explosion	County Durham	74
Henwain Colliery explosion, 1882 Early on Monday 27 February 1882 an explosion in the Three Quarter workings of the Henwain Pit, Blaina, killed the fireman and four of the repairing shift he had taken in with him before examining the workings. The jury blamed the fireman's neglect and cleared the management.	27 February 1882	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	5
Henwaun Colliery explosion, 1882 On Monday morning, 27 February 1882, gas exploded in the Three Quarter coal at J. Lancaster and Company's Henwaun Colliery, Blaina, killing the fireman and the night men he had taken in with him before examining the workings.	1882	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	5
Tudhoe Colliery Explosion At about a quarter past one in the morning of 18 April 1882, firedamp exploded in the Brockwell Seam at Tudhoe Colliery, near Spennymoor in County Durham, killing 37 men and boys and seventy horses and ponies. It happened in the gap between the night shift and the fore shift, so those below were mostly repairers and stonemen. The blast ran the full length of the intake haulage roads, between landings some 2,500 yards apart, but was confined entirely to that one seam; the Hutton and Busty workings above it, from the same shafts, were untouched. The cause was recorded as ignition probably by a naked light.	18 April 1882	Explosion	County Durham	37
West Stanley Colliery explosion, 1882 At about 1 a.m. on 19 April 1882 an explosion in the Busty seam of John Henry Burn's West Stanley Colliery killed thirteen of the eighteen men underground. A large stone had fallen from the roof of a bord and released a pocket of firedamp, which fired at the men's Clanny lamps.	1882	Explosion	County Durham	13
Baddesley Colliery Explosion An underground fire, started by an unprotected steam boiler installed in the return airway, trapped nine night-shift men in the deep workings at Baddesley Colliery. The rescue effort ran for fourteen hours before a gas explosion killed twenty-three of the men attempting it, among them the colliery's owner. Thirty-two died in all.	1 May 1882	Explosion	Warwickshire	32
Victoria Colliery explosion, Bruntcliffe, 1882 Shortly before midnight on 1 May 1882 gas exploded in Stringer's Bord in the Middleton Main pit of J. Haigh and Sons' Victoria Colliery, Bruntcliffe, killing the deputy, five colliers and a boy. A second explosion at about 2 a.m. nearly caught the exploring party as they prepared to bring out the bodies.	1 May 1882	Explosion	West Yorkshire	7
Parkhouse Colliery explosion, 1882 At 10 a.m. on 7 November 1882 an explosion of firedamp in the Clay Cross Company's Parkhouse (No. 7) Pit at Danesmoor, Derbyshire, killed 45 men and boys. The pit was worked by candlelight and had a name as one of the safest in the district; the blast blew off the headstocks and put out the ventilating furnace.	1882	Explosion	Derbyshire	45
Ryhope Colliery air receiver explosion, 1883 The receiver of the air-compressing engine at Ryhope Colliery's South Pit burst one night in 1883 with a report heard miles away; no one was seriously hurt, but the explosion was the subject of an official report.	1883	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	0
Gelli Colliery explosion, 1883 An explosion in the Globe, the steam coal pit at Gelli in the Rhondda Fawr, on 21 August 1883 burned twenty-one men, five of whom died. The jury found accidental death but held that the ventilation was defective and that the management had been negligent, and when a widow sued, the court held that no compensation was payable where the plaintiff had contributed to the accident.	21 August 1883	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	5
Wharncliffe Carlton Colliery explosion, 1883 Just after midnight on 18 October 1883 gas exploded in the dip district of Wharncliffe Carlton Colliery, Barnsley, killing all 20 men on the night shift there. Fire followed, the pit was flooded to put it out, and only 17 bodies were recovered.	18 October 1883	Explosion	South Yorkshire	20
Leycett Colliery explosion, 1883 On Sunday 21 October 1883 an explosion at the Fair Lady Pit, Leycett, killed six men who were building off a gob fire for the Madeley Coal and Iron Company: the surveyor, the underlooker, the fireman and three miners. Three more were injured.	21 October 1883	Explosion	Staffordshire	6
Moorfield Colliery explosion, 1883 At 8.50 a.m. on Wednesday 7 November 1883 a sudden outburst of firedamp exploded in the Moorfield pit between Accrington and Clayton-le-Moors, killing sixty-eight men and boys, the youngest ten, and seriously injuring thirty-nine. Men who had seen gas burning in their lamps had run to the shaft and were waiting for the cage when the blast reached them. The jury could not say how the gas was fired; the Inspector recommended abandoning the Davy lamp.	7 November 1883	Explosion	Lancashire	68
Naval Colliery explosion, 1884 A second explosion at the same Penygraig pit that had killed 101 men in 1880 struck on 27 January 1884, killing 12 — 11 in the blast itself and a twelfth, Daniel Thomas, who died later from suffocation sustained during the rescue attempt.	27 January 1884	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	12
Pochin Colliery Explosion, 1884 An explosion at Pochin Colliery in the Sirhowy valley at about nine o'clock on the evening of Saturday 8 November 1884 killed fourteen men who were repairing a pumping station underground, and all forty-three ponies stabled below. The ventilation fan was destroyed, so rescuers could not go down until the Sunday afternoon. A fifteenth man died at the surface, falling down the shaft in the crush at the pithead. The Inspector of Mines reported to the Home Secretary that the explosion was due to shot-firing; the inquest found there was no evidence to show how it had occurred.	8 November 1884	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	15
Usworth Colliery Explosion, 1885 At 8.58 on the evening of Monday 2 March 1885, methane that had built up in a stone drift at Usworth Colliery was ignited by shotfiring. The coal dust, gas and air explosion that followed killed forty men outright; two more died of afterdamp while trying to reach them. Hundreds of Usworth miners were suddenly out of work.	2 March 1885	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	42
Great Fenton Colliery explosion, 1885 At about 7 a.m. on 8 April 1885 a blown-out shot in the Knowles seam of the Homer Pit at Great Fenton (Stafford) Colliery, Stoke-on-Trent, fired gas that had accumulated at the top of a level. Eight men and boys died, four of them of burns over the following ten days, and five were injured. The coroner's jury recommended that mines be worked without shot-firing as far as possible.	8 April 1885	Explosion	Staffordshire	8
Clifton Hall Colliery explosion Firedamp that had gathered in the void above a collapsing goaf reached the working places at the far end of number 2 East and was lit by a candle. The blast ran through almost the whole Trencherbone seam, and 177 or 178 men and boys died — by burns, by injury, or by the afterdamp that followed.	18 June 1885	Explosion	Greater Manchester	178
Apedale Colliery Explosion, 1885 A second major explosion at Apedale Colliery's Burley Pit, seven years after the 1878 disaster, killed nine men.	20 June 1885	Explosion	Staffordshire	9
Maerdy Colliery explosion, 1885 An explosion in the North West dip workings at Maerdy Colliery on 23 December 1885 killed around 76-81 men, with roughly 750-961 men underground at the time.	23 December 1885	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	76
Easton Colliery explosion, 1886 Early on 19 February 1886, soon after the fireman had examined the Fiery or Smith's Coal Vein at Easton Colliery with a Davy lamp and reported it clear, the men went down and gas exploded near the crosscut. The damage was slight, a door blown out and some brickwork moved, but eight colliers died, three of them days later. The Inspector suspected a sudden outburst of gas from the strata or old workings, and recommended locked lamps.	19 February 1886	Explosion	Bristol	8
Werfa Colliery explosion, 1886 At about half past two on the afternoon of Friday 26 March 1886 an explosion in the Seven Feet vein at Werfa Colliery, Aberdare, blew away the covering at the top of the shaft. An exploring party led by the manager found three men dead 600 yards from the shaft bottom, and a fourth died of his injuries a week later. The workings below were little damaged. Safety lamps were in use, and the cause was not known.	26 March 1886	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	4
Bedford Colliery Explosion, 1886 A firedamp explosion at Bedford No. 2 Pit, Leigh, on Friday 13 August 1886 killed 38 men and boys. The inquest established that a miner drawing pit props had seen firedamp in his lamp and not reported it, and that a second miner, finding his own lamp firing, shook it instead of lowering it and carrying it out.	13 August 1886	Explosion	Greater Manchester	38
Dean Lane Colliery explosion, 1886 On 10 September 1886 firedamp exploded in the Gas Coal seam at the Bedminster Coal Company's Dean Lane Colliery in Bristol, killing ten of the twenty men working there. The inspector found that gas from the coal had seeped through cracks in an arch and fired at a boy's naked light.	10 September 1886	Explosion	Bristol	10
Altofts Colliery explosion, 1886 The explosion in the Silkstone seam at Altofts Colliery near Normanton on 2 October 1886 killed twenty-two men in a pit that had worked for more than twenty years without a life lost to explosion. HM Inspector Frank Wardell traced it to a shot-hole drilled in a most unskilful way, which brought down little stone but threw a great deal of flame into a roadway where coal dust lay everywhere. Recovery took ten weeks of careful work, the inquest waiting until the last body was out, and the disaster became one of the foundations of British research into coal dust.	2 October 1886	Explosion	West Yorkshire	22
Elemore Colliery explosion, 1886 Twenty-eight men and boys were killed at Elemore Colliery, Easington Lane, on 2 December 1886 by an explosion of coal dust which the Durham Mining Museum records as having been ignited by shot firing. The colliery, opened in 1827, worked on until 1974.	2 December 1886	Explosion	County Durham	28
National Colliery explosion, 1887 At 6.40 p.m. on 18 February 1887 an explosion swept the Four Feet seam of the National Colliery at Wattstown in the Rhondda, a dry, dusty and gassy pit where shots were fired in the roads. Thirty-nine died; the last parts of the workings were not reached for five days.	1887	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	39
Udston Colliery explosion, 1887 At about nine o'clock on Saturday 28 May 1887, as men were breaking for food, an explosion swept through the Splint Coal workings of Udston Colliery near Hamilton, sending flame up both shafts. Seventy-three men and boys died, 53 burned and 20 suffocated; only two men and a pony driver in the Splint survived. H.M. Inspector Ralph Moore blamed a shot fired in secret that ignited gas and then coal dust. It is said to be Scotland's second worst coal mining disaster, and Keir Hardie called the deaths murder.	28 May 1887	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	73
Gospel Oak Colliery explosion, 1887 On 31 August 1887 an explosion of firedamp burned two men at Gospel Oak Colliery, in South Staffordshire; both died of their injuries within days.	31 August 1887	Explosion	West Midlands	2
Walker Colliery explosion, 1887 An explosion in the Brockwell seam of Walker Colliery's Ann Pit on 24 October 1887 killed eight men, six at once and two who were found alive but died later. The inspector concluded that a shot had raised coal dust carrying a little firedamp, and that the coal dust alone would probably have carried the flame.	24 October 1887	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	8
Mill Close Mine firedamp explosion 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.	3 November 1887	Explosion	Derbyshire	5
Ffrwd Colliery Gas Explosion, 1887 On 18 November 1887 an explosion of gas at Ffrwd Colliery, near Wrexham, killed three men, among them a collier and his son.	18 November 1887	Explosion	Wrexham	3
St Helen's Colliery explosion, 1888 An explosion at No. 3 Pit, St Helen's Colliery, a mile north of Workington, on the evening of 19 April 1888 killed 30 men. It followed a fire that began in the morning when a shot at the face of Hogg's brow ignited firedamp, and the Inspector concluded that coal dust carried the blast down the engine dip to the downcast shaft.	19 April 1888	Explosion	Cumbria	30
Lea Green Colliery explosion, 1888 A gas explosion in the Potato Delf mine at Lea Green Colliery, Sutton, on 4 May 1888 killed William Lunt at once and two more men, Christopher Tharratt and Matthew Mercer, who died of their injuries nine and ten months later. Naked candles were in use, although the Inspector of Mines had advised the colliery to use safety lamps.	4 May 1888	Explosion	Lancashire	3
Hyde Colliery Explosion, 1889 An explosion of firedamp in the Two-feet mine at Hyde Colliery on the morning of 18 January 1889 killed twenty-three men and boys, almost all of them by afterdamp. The men worked by naked candle under an agreement made because the pit was believed too well ventilated to hold gas; the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.	18 January 1889	Explosion	Greater Manchester	23
Brynmally Colliery explosion, 1889 On 13 March 1889 a roof fall at Garston's jig in the Queen seam of Brynmally's No. 1 Pit released an outburst of gas that fired at open lamps, killing twenty men and boys, eight of them sixteen or younger. The inspector blamed lax discipline over lamps under the North Wales butty system.	1889	Explosion	Wrexham	20
Mossfield Colliery explosion, 1889 An explosion at about ten to four on the morning of 16 October 1889 at Mossfield Colliery, Longton, killed sixty-four of the seventy-seven men and boys in the Cockshead and Banbury seams, along with sixteen horses. A gob fire had been smelt in the Cockshead two days before; the manager ordered a stopping built in the main airway while men were still at work below. The jury could not say how the gas was fired, but censured the manager for not having gone down the pit himself, and the coroner told him he had systematically broken the rule requiring his daily supervision.	16 October 1889	Explosion	Staffordshire	64
Hebburn Colliery 'A' Pit Explosion, 1889 An improperly stemmed shothole in the Beaumont seam triggered an explosion at Hebburn Colliery's 'A' Pit in the early hours of 4 November 1889, killing six.	4 November 1889	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	6