Explosion disasters

Firedamp, coal dust or blasting explosions underground.

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33 disasters in the 1930s, of 502.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
Wath Main Colliery explosions, 1930 Two explosions in the Billingley Drift District of Wath Main Colliery on 24 February 1930 killed seven men and injured three more, after a fall of roof broke a miner's flame lamp in an area an inspector's ventilation order had not, in fact, been carried out.	24 February 1930	Explosion	South Yorkshire	7
Lyme Pit explosion, 1930 At about 6.15 p.m. on 26 February 1930 a shot fired in the Wigan Four Foot seam of the No. 2 Lyme Pit, Haydock, ignited firedamp on a longwall conveyor face. Five men were killed outright and eight more died of their burns; it was the worst disaster in the Haydock Collieries since Wood Pit in 1878.	1930	Explosion	Lancashire	13
Allerton Bywater Colliery explosion, 1930 At about half past nine on the morning of Monday 10 March 1930, a deputy at Allerton Bywater Colliery fired his tenth shot of the shift into a place where firedamp had gathered in explosive proportions. The explosion, worsened by coal dust, killed five men and a pit pony. The inquest found no negligence, but noted that the face had not been thoroughly treated with inert dust and that the shot-firing dynamo in use should not have been.	10 March 1930	Explosion	West Yorkshire	5
Auchinraith Colliery explosion A shot fired in the Black Band section of No. 1 pit ignited firedamp on a Saturday morning. Five men were killed outright, a sixth died the next day, and nine more were burned. Fifteen men had been at work in the section; the rest of the pit knew nothing until afterwards.	30 August 1930	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	6
Williamthorpe Colliery Explosion, 1930 On 19 September 1930 four men were killed by an explosion of gas at Williamthorpe Colliery, in Derbyshire.	19 September 1930	Explosion	Derbyshire	4
Grove Pit Disaster, 1930 An underground gas explosion at Grove Colliery, beneath Brownhills Common, killed fourteen miners — most from carbon monoxide poisoning as they tried to escape rather than from the blast itself.	1 October 1930	Explosion	Staffordshire	14
Houghton Main Colliery explosion, 1930 A firedamp explosion during ripping operations at Houghton Main Colliery killed seven men in December 1930, after a deputy fired a fourth shot hole despite reportedly detecting a break in the coal that should have prompted a check for gas.	12 December 1930	Explosion	South Yorkshire	7
Auchengeich Colliery explosion, 1931 An explosion tore through the night shift in No. 2 Pit — the Round Pit — at Auchengeich Colliery in the early hours of 22 January 1931. Five men were killed outright and a sixth died the next day. Five others who had escaped unhurt went straight back in to look for them and were themselves overcome by gas.	22 January 1931	Explosion	North Lanarkshire	6
Haig Colliery explosion, 1931 A firedamp explosion in the Main Band seam, over two miles underground at Haig Colliery, killed 27 miners and injured 13 more on the evening of 29 January 1931.	29 January 1931	Explosion	Cumbria	27
Newdigate Colliery explosion, 1931 At about 10 a.m. on 3 September 1931 firedamp exploded at the end of 6's face in Newdigate Colliery's Two Yard seam, near Nuneaton, on a longwall face under heavy weight. Four men were killed outright and four of the five burned died in hospital. The Chief Inspector traced the ignition to arcing in the conveyor motor's plug.	1931	Explosion	Warwickshire	8
Bowhill Colliery disaster, 1931 A firedamp explosion and the afterdamp that followed it killed ten men working in the Dunfermline Splint seam at Bowhill Colliery, Cardenden, on 31 October 1931 — one of the worst disasters in the history of the Fife coalfield.	31 October 1931	Explosion	Fife	10
Bentley Colliery explosion, 1931 A firedamp explosion in the North-East District of Bentley Colliery's Barnsley seam killed 45 men and boys on the evening of 20 November 1931, most likely ignited by a gob fire smouldering in the mine's old workings; the rescue that followed brought eight Edward Medals.	20 November 1931	Explosion	South Yorkshire	45
Glamorgan Colliery explosion, 1932 A gas explosion in the Pentre seam at Glamorgan Colliery, Llwynypia, killed eleven men, including two members of the rescue party.	25 January 1932	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	11
Mawstone Mine Disaster A firedamp explosion at Mawstone Mine, Youlgreave, killed five miners working on a ventilation fan; three more men died attempting a rescue without breathing apparatus, bringing the toll to eight and closing the mine for good.	23 May 1932	Explosion	Derbyshire	8
Garswood Hall No. 9 Colliery explosion, 1932 Twenty-seven people were killed at Garswood Hall No. 9 Colliery, near Wigan, on 12 November 1932 in an explosion of firedamp which the Durham Mining Museum records as ignited by an electric spark. The inquiry that followed was thorough: its report works through the colliery's ventilation, shotfiring, stonedusting and lighting, the story of the explosion and the rescue, a damaged safety lamp and the electric signalling circuits, before reaching its conclusions and listing the victims and their injuries.	12 November 1932	Explosion	Greater Manchester	27
Cardowan Colliery explosion, 1932 A firedamp explosion, triggered when a shot was fired into coal already loosened by an earlier shot, killed 11 men at Cardowan Colliery's dip side face on 16 November 1932.	16 November 1932	Explosion	North Lanarkshire	11
Cortonwood Colliery explosion, 1932 Just before midnight on 9 December 1932 a flash ran along a machine-cut face in Cortonwood's Silkstone seam, where shots had been fired. Four men were killed outright and three more died of burns in Beckett Hospital, Barnsley; the deputy in charge, Alphonso Allen, was among the dead.	1932	Explosion	South Yorkshire	7
West Cannock No. 5 Colliery Explosion (1933) An explosion in the Shallow Seam at West Cannock No. 5 Colliery, Hednesford, killed several miners on 16 May 1933 -- sources disagree on the exact toll.	16 May 1933	Explosion	Staffordshire	5
Water Haigh Colliery explosion, 1933 On the evening of 27 July 1933 a shot fired in the Top Silkstone seam at Water Haigh Colliery ignited firedamp; three of the six men burned in the explosion died of their injuries.	27 July 1933	Explosion	West Yorkshire	3
Grassmoor Colliery Explosion, 1933 Firedamp exploded on a ninety-yard conveyor face in the Deep Hard seam at Grassmoor's No. 8 pit just before two on a Sunday morning, killing fourteen of the eighteen men at work there. The source of ignition was never established, an electric cap-lamp headpiece being the likeliest suggestion, and a public inquiry was held under the Coal Mines Act.	19 November 1933	Explosion	Derbyshire	14
Bilsthorpe Colliery Explosions (1934) Two separate firedamp explosions three hours apart in the North West No. 6 district killed nine men and injured a further forty.	26 July 1934	Explosion	Nottinghamshire	9
Rosehall Colliery explosion, 1934 At about two o'clock on the morning of 14 August 1934 firedamp exploded in the Blair section of the main coal seam in No. 10 pit, Rosehall Colliery, where nine men were coal-cutting on the night shift. Six were terribly burned; five of them died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary over the following week. Their workmates carried them half a mile to the shaft through afterdamp before the Coatbridge rescue brigade arrived. A fatal accident inquiry followed, and in March 1935 the acting manager was fined for failing to provide two means of egress and for not reporting an earlier ignition of gas.	14 August 1934	Explosion	North Lanarkshire	5
Gresford Colliery explosion, 1934 An explosion in the Dennis section of Gresford Colliery's Main seam killed 261 miners in the early hours of 22 September 1934, with three more men dying in the rescue effort and a further worker killed in a subsequent explosion — 266 deaths in total, making it one of the worst disasters in British mining history. A subsequent government inquiry found widespread falsification of ventilation records and serious management failings, though prosecutions resulted only in a conviction for inadequate record-keeping.	22 September 1934	Explosion	Wrexham	266
South Kirkby Colliery explosion, 1935 A firedamp explosion in the Barnsley Seam at South Kirkby Colliery killed 10 men in August 1935; a second explosion during the rescue effort itself burned five more, including a rescue-brigade officer who later died of his injuries.	28 August 1935	Explosion	South Yorkshire	10
North Gawber Colliery explosion, 1935 At about 2.45 p.m. on 12 September 1935 an explosion in the Nos. 3 and 4 South Districts of North Gawber Colliery, in the gassy Lidgett seam near Barnsley, killed nineteen men. The Chief Inspector concluded that a shot fired in the ripping of a top airway gate had started it, and that it should never have been fired.	1935	Explosion	South Yorkshire	19
Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery explosion, 1936 At about half past three on the morning of Thursday 6 August 1936 an explosion in the Lidgett seam at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery near Barnsley trapped fifty-eight men. One was brought out alive and rushed to hospital; the rest died, most of them in the gas that swept the workings after the blast. It was the worst mining disaster in South Yorkshire, and the last of that scale in the county. A memorial with half a pulley wheel was dedicated in Athersley Memorial Park in 1979 and unveiled by Arthur Scargill.	6 August 1936	Explosion	South Yorkshire	58
Markham Colliery explosion, 1937 A firedamp explosion at Markham Colliery, ignited by a faulty electrical coal-cutter after a roof break released trapped gas, killed 9 men by carbon monoxide poisoning on 21 January 1937.	21 January 1937	Explosion	Derbyshire	9
South Normanton Colliery explosion, 1937 At about 9 p.m. on 15 February 1937 two explosions tore through the Waterloo seam of South Normanton Colliery's Winterbank pit, killing eight men and seriously burning three. Part of a cigarette was found by one of the dead, and smoking or a struck match was suggested as the cause.	15 February 1937	Explosion	Derbyshire	8
Holditch Colliery disaster, 1937 A fire that began at a coal-cutting machine on the Four Feet face at Holditch Colliery, Chesterton, at about a quarter to six on the morning of 2 July 1937, and the eight explosions that followed it. Thirty men died and eight were injured. Almost all of them were killed by the last explosion, more than four hours after the fire started, while building stoppings in a position chosen against the manager’s advice in order to save the coal seam. The dead included two of His Majesty’s Inspectors of Mines, the colliery’s joint managing director, the under-manager and four members of the Hanley Rescue Brigade.	2 July 1937	Explosion	Staffordshire	30
Britannia Colliery compressed-air main explosion, 1938 On 10 April 1938 the main compressed-air pipe supplying Powell Duffryn's Rhymney Valley collieries burst while three men were repairing a joint beside Britannia Colliery, Pengam. The foreman boilermaker John Hammersley and the welder Roland Bond were killed outright and the fitter Frank Jones was seriously injured.	10 April 1938	Machinery	Caerphilly	2
Markham Colliery explosion, 1938 Runaway tubs colliding with steel roof supports dislodged a damaged electrical cable at Markham Colliery's Blackshale Pit, sparking a coal-dust explosion that killed 79 men on the night of 9-10 May 1938 — the worst of the colliery's three disasters.	10 May 1938	Explosion	Derbyshire	79
Astley Green Colliery explosion, 1939 A firedamp explosion struck Astley Green Colliery in the early hours of 7 June 1939 while men fought an underground fire over a mile from the pit bottom, killing five men including the pit manager and injuring four more; mines rescue teams were themselves driven back by further explosions.	7 June 1939	Explosion	Greater Manchester	5
Valleyfield Colliery explosion, 1939 An explosion in Dodd's Heading at Valleyfield Colliery on the night of 28 October 1939 killed 35 men and travelled more than 1,500 yards through the workings. The inquiry found it began as an ignition of firedamp during shot firing, and was carried by coal dust that should not have been there.	28 October 1939	Explosion	Fife	35