Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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19 disasters in the 1920s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Minto Colliery firedamp explosion, 1920 A firedamp explosion in the Five Feet seam of No. 2 Pit, Minto Colliery, Lochgelly, at about 4 a.m. on 28 May 1920 burned five men, three of them seriously; the brusher William Galloway died in hospital within days. Gas that had accumulated was ignited by a naked lamp.	28 May 1920	Explosion	Fife	1
East Plean Colliery explosion, 1922 A shot fired in the Torwood Levels blew out instead of breaking the coal, igniting coal dust and killing twelve men; four more were overcome by carbon monoxide, and the officials who led the recovery were poisoned in their turn.	13 July 1922	Explosion	Stirling	12
Haig Colliery explosion, 1922 A firedamp explosion at Haig Colliery on 5 September 1922 killed 39 men, the worst of three major explosions to strike the mine over its working life.	5 September 1922	Explosion	Cumbria	39
St Helen's Colliery explosion, 1922 An explosion of firedamp in Ditchburn's Level in the Ten Quarters seam of No. 3 Pit, St Helen's Colliery, Workington, at about noon on 27 November 1922 killed six men. The inquiry found that a shot fired by the deputy James Johnstone, an unnecessary and overcharged top brushing shot, had emitted the flame that ignited gas.	27 November 1922	Explosion	Cumbria	6
Wheldale Colliery explosion, 1923 An underground explosion in the Silkstone Seam's No. 2 District at Wheldale Colliery on 22 February 1923 killed nine men — one outright, the rest of severe burns — after the deputy's own shot ignited coal dust during ripping work.	22 February 1923	Explosion	West Yorkshire	9
Maltby Main Colliery explosion, 1923 An explosion tore through Maltby Main Colliery at 9.15am on Saturday 28 July 1923, a mile from the pit bottom, while men were working to seal off a stubborn underground gob fire. Twenty-seven died; only one body was recovered at the time. The disaster became known locally as 'Black Saturday'.	28 July 1923	Explosion	South Yorkshire	27
Gartshore Colliery explosion, 1923 An explosion at No. 3 Gartshore Pit on the evening of 28 July 1923 killed eight of the twelve men constructing a water lodgment at the bottom of a new shaft; a pit bottomer thrown clear by the blast climbed back underground himself to help pull the injured to safety.	28 July 1923	Explosion	East Dunbartonshire	8
Rhos Amman Colliery explosion, 1924 At about 11.30 p.m. on 4 January 1924 an explosion destroyed a small tin cabin near the mouth of a new slant being driven at Rhos Amman Colliery, near Brynamman, killing seven men gathered there at the change of shift. Explosives in the cabin were thought to have been thawed at its open fire.	4 January 1924	Explosion	Carmarthenshire	7
Birley East Colliery Explosion, 1924 An explosion at Birley East Colliery on 23 February 1924 killed four men and injured four others. Two of the dead were father and son, Herbert and Ernest Roper of Rainbow Forge, Hackenthorpe.	23 February 1924	Explosion	South Yorkshire	4
Llay Main Colliery Explosion At about a quarter past one on the morning of Friday 5 December 1924, gas ignited in the North Two Yard district of Llay Main Colliery, near Wrexham. The flame travelled only twenty or thirty yards, but nine men and boys died in it — including the fireman who had fired the shot that set it off. The other 407 men underground got out. The divisional inspector’s report to Parliament found the district’s ventilation inadequate and criticised the practice of relying on exhaust air from a haulage engine to ventilate working places.	5 December 1924	Explosion	Wrexham	9
Portland Colliery, Kirkstyle Pit explosion Three men went into a working place in Kirkstyle Pit at the start of the Sunday night shift and firedamp exploded, setting off canisters of Bobbinite left in the mine over the weekend. The fireman and a shaftman went into the smoke after them and did not come out. All five died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The manager and under-manager were prosecuted over the ventilation of the place, and the Carnegie Hero Fund made posthumous awards to the two would-be rescuers.	18–19 January 1925	Explosion	East Ayrshire	5
Birchenwood Colliery Explosion, 1925 An explosion at the No. 18 pit of Birchenwood Colliery, Kidsgrove, on 18 December 1925 killed seven men and seriously injured fourteen others. The colliery had changed hands six months earlier, passing from the Birchenwood Colliery Company to Kidsgrove Collieries Limited.	18 December 1925	Explosion	Staffordshire	7
Marine Colliery explosion, 1927 An underground gas and coal-dust explosion in the Black Vein seam at Marine Colliery killed around 52 men in the early hours of 1 March 1927, one of the major South Wales colliery disasters of the interwar period.	1 March 1927	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	52
Mickley Colliery Roof Fall On 2 March 1927 two brothers, both experienced stonemen, were killed at Mickley Colliery, in Northumberland, when a misfired shot exploded as they drilled out its stemming.	2 March 1927	Explosion	Northumberland	2
Eden Colliery explosion, 1927 At about 6.45 on the morning of 7 November 1927 firedamp exploded near the top of a rise drift from the Busty seam to the Towneley seam at Eden Colliery, Leadgate, killing John Davison, the 74-year-old fore-overman, and the masons Andrew Dickson, 49, and his son Andrew, 17. The Towneley had never been known to give off gas. The inspector traced the flame to a match struck near an oil vessel in a drift that had filled with firedamp after its air was cut off, and the manager, under-manager and a deputy were fined for negligence.	7 November 1927	Explosion	County Durham	3
Digby Colliery Explosion, 1928 A firedamp explosion at an electrically driven coal-cutter face at Digby Colliery, Giltbrook, killed two Awsworth men, James Briggs and George Dawes, and burned a third; the inquest found the men had gone down without a flame safety lamp and could not say what ignited the gas.	5 January 1928	Explosion	Nottinghamshire	2
Redheugh Colliery explosion Twenty months after Redheugh Colliery was abandoned, its sealed shafts exploded. Flame shot about seventy feet above the winding shaft, the timber seals were thrown sixty yards, a rope wheel from the fan shaft landed ninety yards away in a school yard and more than two hundred panes of glass were broken in nearby houses. Nobody was hurt, and the cause was never established.	5 January 1929	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	0
Milfraen Colliery explosion, 1929 At 8.30 on the morning of 10 July 1929 gas exploded in the Mapstone's district of Milfraen Colliery above Blaenavon, killing eight men outright and one more who died of his burns. The formal investigation, held with the inquest, found that roof falls had spoiled the ventilation of two conveyor faces, gas had gathered at a fall, the fireman had missed it, and a defective Hopkinson coal cutter had sparked it off. The jury returned misadventure.	10 July 1929	Explosion	Torfaen	9
Wernbwll Colliery explosion, 1929 An explosion in the No.13 level of Wernbwll Colliery's West District killed seven men on the evening of 28 November 1929; the official inquiry blamed firedamp ignited at an open acetylene lamp, spread by coal dust the colliery had never stone-dusted against.	28 November 1929	Explosion	Swansea	7