Fire disasters

Underground or surface fires, including spontaneous combustion.

See all disasters, including filtering by type.

64 disasters, in date order.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
1800s
Mostyn Colliery Fire, 1807 Twenty-six men died at Mostyn Colliery, Flintshire, in April 1807. Wikipedia's account of the colliery, citing a period notice, calls it a fire; the Durham Mining Museum's disaster record gives the cause as an explosion. Several families lost more than one member. Taken with the explosion of March 1809, the two killed fifty men between them, made twenty-six widows and left sixty-six children fatherless.	April 1807	Fire	Flintshire	26
1810s
Sheriff Hill Colliery fire, 1815 On 11 December 1815 the wooden partition that divided Sheriff Hill Colliery's shaft into upcast and downcast caught fire from the coal lamp burning to draw the air up. With the partition gone the ventilation failed. Every effort was made to get the men and horses out, and all were saved but five wastemen, who perished in the workings.	11 December 1815	Fire	Tyne and Wear	5
1820s
William Pit underground fire, 1826 On 3 January 1826 fire broke out in an underground engine room at William Pit, Whitehaven, and its smoke spread through the workings, suffocating nine. The dead ranged from a boy of thirteen to a man of seventy-eight, and three were in their sixties. It was the third disaster at the pit in five years.	3 Jan 1826	Fire	Cumbria	9
1830s
Magpie Mine suffocation of three Maypitt miners Three miners from the neighbouring Maypitt mine suffocated after Magpie miners lit fires underground to smoke them out during a dispute over a shared lead vein — the origin of the mine's 'Widow's Curse' story.	1833	Gas / Asphyxiation	Derbyshire	3
1840s
Darley Main Colliery fire, 1847 On 29 January 1847 blasting with gunpowder set the coal on fire about 200 yards from the pit bottom at Darley Main Colliery, near Barnsley. After more than two hours trying to put it out the men retreated through the smoke, and six of them died, among them the underground steward.	29 January 1847	Fire	South Yorkshire	6
Felling Colliery explosion, 1847 Shortly after nine on the evening of 22 June 1847 an explosion at Felling Colliery killed six miners, four outright and two from their injuries, and eighteen horses. It began not in the coal but at an underground haulage engine, whose fire had been banked with the damper shut so that it made gas like a retort. The jury found accidental death and asked for the damper to be pinned open.	22 June 1847	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	6
1850s
Lundhill Colliery explosion Firedamp exploded twenty minutes after the men had eaten their dinner underground, killing 189 of the 200 below. The pit then caught fire, and the only way to put it out was to divert a stream into the workings, which left the bodies where they lay for months.	19 February 1857	Explosion	South Yorkshire	189
Hollingwood Colliery lamp cabin fire, 1857 A fire in an underground lamp cabin at the Staveley works' Hollingwood mine in November 1857 killed twelve men, among them the manager, D. Cooper. Brick stoppings built to smother it exploded the accumulated methane, and the dip workings were then flooded from the Chesterfield Canal, drowning 90 acres of coal.	November 1857	Fire	Derbyshire	12
Page Bank Colliery shaft fire, 1858 At eight in the morning on 30 September 1858 the back overman at Page Bank, Thomas Kellet, was knocked from the top of the cage by something falling in the shaft and fell to the bottom. Fire followed at the shaft, and ten people died. Fire engines were called from the surrounding towns to pump river water down the pit while the colliery's own pumping engine was turned on the flames; the inspector thought the case unusual enough to set out the inquest evidence at length in his annual report.	30 September 1858	Fire	County Durham	10
1860s
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
Bwllfa Colliery Fire (1867) A ventilation-system fire at Bwllfa Colliery filled an underground drift with smoke during a shift change on 27 December 1867, killing five of the eleven men working there.	27 December 1867	Fire	Rhondda Cynon Taf	5
Rainford Colliery shaft fire, 1869 In January 1869 the ventilating furnace at Rainford Colliery set fire to the coal pillars left to support the shafts, which were being deepened. Seven men preparing to put the fire out with water were fatally burned when the flame turned on them. The next night two enginemen fell to their deaths when the scaffold over the shaft gave way.	8-9 January 1869	Fire	Merseyside	9
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
1870s
Underwood Colliery fire Underwood Colliery was found to be on fire on the Sunday morning of 12 April 1874. Two men went down at about eleven o'clock to save the horses, were warned they would meet firedamp, and went anyway. Neither came back. Two more who followed them were brought out exhausted. The inquest jury found death from choke damp caused by the firing of the woodwork in a stone heading.	12 April 1874	Fire	Nottinghamshire	2
Astley Deep Pit explosion, 1874 On 14 April 1874 a roof fall in the Half Moon Tunnel at Astley Deep Pit, Dukinfield, then the deepest coal mine in Britain, released gas that exploded and set the workings on fire, killing 54 men and boys. The jury blamed the bricking-up of a ventilating mouthing and a pit in a state of anarchy.	14 April 1874	Explosion	Greater Manchester	54
Rawmarsh Colliery explosion, 1874 At about ten to eight on the morning of 20 November 1874, gas exploded in the No. 7 dip south levels of the Barnsley seam at J. and J. Charlesworth's Rawmarsh Colliery near Rotherham — about 1,400 yards from the shaft, in a pit worked alongside their Warren Vale colliery. Twenty-three men died. The engineers disagreed at the inquest about whether an outburst or a roof fall had driven the gas out, but not about what lit it: the men were working with naked candles.	20 November 1874	Explosion	South Yorkshire	23
Stonehill Colliery fire A wall of cannel more than a hundred yards long caught fire 1,200 yards from the shaft at Stonehill Colliery, Farnworth, with about 300 men and boys below. The ventilation carried the smoke inbye onto the men working beyond it. Most of the pit got out; eighteen were suffocated. Two of the dead had turned back — a fireman to warn his workmates, a father to look for his son, who was found beside him.	23 January 1877	Fire	Greater Manchester	18
Annesley Colliery fire and afterdamp Seven men died of carbon monoxide poisoning at Annesley Colliery while working to reach and remove the seat of a fire that had been sealed behind a stopping since May. Some were killed going back in after the others.	26–27 June 1877	Gas / Asphyxiation	Nottinghamshire	7
Whiston Colliery explosion, 1878 On Sunday 17 February 1878 an explosion at Whiston Colliery, near Prescot, killed seven men who were sealing off a fire caused by spontaneous combustion in the Main Delf. The jury returned accidental death and praised the manager's efforts.	17 February 1878	Explosion	Merseyside	7
Waunllwyd Colliery stable fire, 1879 On 22 September 1879 a fire broke out near the underground stables at Waunllwyd Colliery, Ebbw Vale, and three men died; one horse was brought out alive.	22 September 1879	Fire	Blaenau Gwent	3
1880s
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
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
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
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
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
Wellwood Colliery Derby Pit fire, 1884 On the night of Sunday 30 March 1884 fire broke out around the underground haulage engine of the Derby Pit at Wellwood Colliery, Dunfermline. Three men who went 500 yards in through the smoke to open a trap door and clear the air were suffocated; the search party that found them barely got back.	30 March 1884	Fire	Fife	3
Niddrie Colliery No. 7 Pit fire, 1884 Early on 24 May 1884 the timber beside the pump rods in the No. 7 incline of Niddrie Colliery, near Portobello, caught fire. The flames destroyed the headgear and smoke filled the workings; most men escaped by No. 12 pit, but sixteen went to the rise workings instead, and seven of them were found dead ten hours later.	1884	Fire	Midlothian	7
Mauricewood Colliery fire, 1889 An underground fire at Mauricewood Colliery, near Penicuik, on 5 September 1889 killed 63 of the 70 men and boys working the pit that day, one of the worst mining disasters in Scottish history; it took over six months to recover all the bodies.	5 September 1889	Fire	Midlothian	63
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
1890s
Glyn Pits explosion and fire, 1890 In the early hours of Thursday 23 January 1890 gas exploded underground at the Glyn Pits near Pontypool. Most of the men struggled out, but five miners and nine horses were missing, and fires spread through the workings so fiercely that rescue was almost impossible. Five days later the colliery was deliberately flooded to put out the fire and save the pit, and the five bodies were never recovered. Within a fortnight some of the men who had gone to work at nearby Llanerch Colliery died in the explosion there.	23 January 1890	Explosion	Torfaen	5
Morfa Colliery explosion, 1890 Early on Tuesday 10 March 1890 an explosion tore through Morfa Colliery at Taibach, Port Talbot, a pit long known as gassy and as the pit of ghosts. Of about 250 men and boys below, some 100 walked out unaided; 87 died, including the manager William Barras and a rescuer, Daniel Brownsell. Five boys climbed out over a roof fall the next morning, and John Franks was found alive twelve hours further in. The jury found that shot firing had ignited a body of gas.	10 March 1890	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	87
Agecroft Colliery fire suffocations, 1891 On 2 December 1891 four men were suffocated by gases while shutting off an underground fire at Agecroft Colliery, near Pendlebury in Lancashire.	2 December 1891	Gas / Asphyxiation	Greater Manchester	4
Wheldale Colliery fire, 1891 A fire broke out in the engine plane of Wheldale Colliery's Silkstone Pit on 8 December 1891, killing five men overcome by smoke and fumes while trying to escape; the mine was ultimately flooded to bring the fire under control.	8 December 1891	Fire	West Yorkshire	5
Bamfurlong Colliery fire, 1892 Between 7.15 and 7.30 a.m. on 14 December 1892 a paraffin torch set fire to a timber-floored compressed-air engine house on the main intake of Bamfurlong Colliery, near Wigan, and the ventilating current carried the smoke into the workings. Seventy-three men escaped by the return airway, but sixteen men and boys tried to get out through the smoke and suffocated. The regular engine boy was ill and a boy of thirteen had been sent in his place.	14 December 1892	Fire	Greater Manchester	16
Great Western Colliery Fire, 1893 An underground fire at the Great Western Colliery, Hopkinstown, on 11 April 1893 trapped around 200 men in the Four Feet seam east of the Hetty Pit. About 150 were brought out alive; 63 men and boys, aged between 14 and 61, died.	11 April 1893	Fire	Rhondda Cynon Taf	63
Oakley Colliery shaft fire, 1895 On 31 May 1895 the wooden lining of No. 3 Pit, the upcast shaft of Kinneddar (Oakley) Colliery near Dunfermline, caught fire from a ventilating fire lit at its foot that morning. When the lining burned out, flame and hot air were driven over men building stoppings in the Jersey seam; seven were burned and died within a day, and two more fell down No. 2 Pit in the confusion.	31 May 1895	Fire	Fife	9
Snaefell Mine disaster Timber left smouldering underground filled the mine's shafts with carbon monoxide; miners descending on the morning shift were overwhelmed before they realised the danger. Sources give the death toll as 19-23.	10 May 1897	Gas / Asphyxiation	Isle of Man	20
Whitwick Colliery Fire, 1898 A gob fire in Whitwick Colliery's No. 5 Pit killed 35 men and boys overnight, the worst mining disaster in Leicestershire's history, leaving 27 widows and 84 children under 13 orphaned.	19 April 1898	Fire	Leicestershire	35
1900s
Hill of Beath Colliery fire, 1901 An underground fire in the east section of the Lochgelly Splint and Parrot seam at Hill of Beath Colliery, Fife, killed seven men on 15 February 1901. The oversman and the fireman went to examine the stoppings that shut the fire off and did not return; a search party led by the manager walked into carbon monoxide in the return airway and most of it was lost.	15 February 1901	Fire	Fife	7
Falla Hill Colliery fire, 1902 On the forenoon of Monday 20 October 1902 fire broke out underground at the United Collieries Company's Falla Hill pit at Fauldhouse. Some men were warned in time and ran for the pit bottom to be drawn up, but four working far into the workings had their escape cut off and were suffocated by the fumes: a fireman of fifty-seven, two brushers and a sixteen-year-old drawer. A memorial to the Fallahill Disaster stands at Fauldhouse Miners Welfare.	20 October 1902	Fire	West Lothian	4
Cwrt Herbert Colliery explosion, 1906 At ten to four on the afternoon of Friday 1 June 1906 gas reached a gob fire in the Four Feet seam at Cwrt Herbert Colliery, near Neath Abbey, and exploded in two flashes near the deepest part of a slant running 800 yards from the pit bottom. Four colliers were seriously injured and five fatally burned, among them two fathers and their sons, dying over the following eight days. The fire could not be controlled, and the workings were flooded.	1 June 1906	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	5
Lochhead Colliery fire and whitedamp, 1907 An underground fire that broke out near the Lochhead shaft in the old Duncan's workings on Sunday 29 December 1907 sent carbon monoxide through the workings to the Victoria shaft at West Wemyss. It killed the fireman John Kilpatrick and Andrew Morris and William Scott, who went down to look for him. George and James Dryburgh, who went down to rescue them, were awarded the Edward Medal.	29 December 1907	Fire	Fife	3
Hamstead Colliery fire, 1908 A fire at the pit bottom staging of Hamstead Colliery, near Great Barr, killed 26 men on 4 March 1908, including a rescuer, after poisonous fumes filled the workings before most of the underground shift could escape.	4 March 1908	Fire	West Midlands	26
Highhouse Colliery pit-head fire, 1908 On a night in July 1908 a fire broke out in the engine house at Highhouse Colliery, near Auchinleck in Ayrshire, and spread to the pithead frame while eighty-four men were underground; all were brought out safely.	July 1908	Fire	East Ayrshire	0
1910s
Wellington Pit explosion, 1910 An explosion of firedamp and coal dust in the No. 3 North District of Wellington Pit, Whitehaven, on the evening of 11 May 1910 killed 136 men and boys. The fire that followed could not be fought, and the pit was sealed two days later with the dead still inside; it was not reopened until the end of September.	11 May 1910	Explosion	Cumbria	136
Pretoria Pit Disaster At about 7.50 on the morning of Wednesday 21 December 1910, an explosion tore through the workings of the Hulton Colliery Company’s Bank Pit No. 3 at Over Hulton, near Westhoughton — the pit universally known as the Pretoria Pit. Of the 344 men and boys underground in the affected districts, only three came out alive, and one of those died the following day. The final toll of 344 dead makes it the worst mining accident in Lancashire’s history and the third worst in Britain, after the Oaks Colliery explosion of 1866 and Senghenydd in 1913.	21 December 1910	Explosion	Greater Manchester	344
Big Pit fire (1913) Three men died in a fire near the underground stables while trying to rescue the pit ponies stabled there; the horses survived.	7 April 1913	Fire	Torfaen	3
Cadder Colliery fire Fire broke out underground in No. 15 pit while the Sunday back shift was working. Twenty-two of the twenty-six men below died, most of them from smoke and gas. Four got out through the connection to No. 17, one of them found alive after nineteen hours.	3 August 1913	Fire	East Dunbartonshire	22
Exhall Colliery fire An oiler at Exhall set his paraffin torch down on a beam beside the haulage wheels at the top of the downcast shaft, and it fell five feet into the wheel race. The headgear caught fire, dense smoke went down the shaft, and fourteen of the 375 men in the workings died of carbon monoxide. The other 361 came up, many of them walking two miles underground to the emergency shaft, because one foreman remembered his fire instructions and shut the separation doors.	21 September 1915	Fire	Warwickshire	14
1920s
Bothwell Castle Colliery fire, 1920 On the night of 26 April 1920 a motor engine caught fire underground at Bothwell Castle Colliery, near Uddingston, and four men were suffocated by the smoke in a bye road; seven others were rescued alive.	26 April 1920	Fire	South Lanarkshire	4
Greenrigg Colliery pithead fire A fire at the pithead of Greenrigg Colliery, between Harthill and Fauldhouse, destroyed the surface buildings and headframes while men were underground. With the shafts out of use they walked out through the connecting workings into Southrigg Colliery. No one is recorded as killed or hurt. The pit was rebuilt and worked until 1960.	1925 (or 1924)	Fire	West Lothian	0
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
1930s
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
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
Dumbreck Colliery fire, 1938 On Sunday 30 January 1938 a fire broke out at a cable junction box in a haulage road of the No. 1 Pit at Dumbreck Colliery, Kilsyth. Smoke and fumes carried into Kelly's Section, more than a mile from the shaft, and nine men there died of carbon monoxide poisoning; one man escaped.	30 January 1938	Fire	North Lanarkshire	9
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
1940s
Mossfield Colliery explosion, 1940 Eleven men died in an explosion in the Cockshead seam at Mossfield Colliery, Longton, at about a quarter past one on the morning of 21 March 1940 — the same seam that had killed sixty-four in 1889. Twelve were at or near the 15's Level face; only the fireman, Arthur Seaton, survived. The chief inspector of mines traced it to firedamp built up behind the very packs that had been built to seal off a heating six days earlier.	21 March 1940	Explosion	Staffordshire	11
1950s
Creswell Colliery fire, 1950 A conveyor-belt fire at a transfer point in Creswell Colliery's High Hazel seam killed 80 men by carbon monoxide poisoning on 26 September 1950, after fire cut off the only intake route and toxic smoke filled the sole usable return airway — one of the worst British coal-mining disasters of the post-war era.	26 September 1950	Fire	Derbyshire	80
Greenside Mine fire, 1952 A fire that broke out over a weekend in the North Shaft workings released carbon monoxide through the mine when the day shift restarted the air compressor, killing four miners — the worst single loss of life in Greenside's history.	7 July 1952	Fire	Cumbria	4
Auchengeich Colliery fire, 1959 A fire in an underground booster fan filled the return airway of Auchengeich Colliery with carbon monoxide, and a man-riding train carrying 48 miners was sent into it. Forty-seven died; one man walked out. It remains the worst mining disaster in 20th-century Scotland.	18 September 1959	Fire	North Lanarkshire	47
1960s
Cardowan Colliery explosion, 1960 Shortly before 7 p.m. on 25 July 1960, as a party led by the Group Manager and the District Inspector came away from clearing an airway over a roof fall on No. 4 East face at Cardowan, firedamp exploded behind them and flame swept the intake. The district had been sealed for six months after a fire. Three men working on the gas drainage pipes in the return were killed and seven were burned, one of whom died a week later. The Deputy Chief Inspector concluded that half-burned coal had reheated once fresh air reached it.	25 July 1960	Explosion	North Lanarkshire	4
Michael Colliery fire, 1967 A fire broke out underground during the night shift at Michael Colliery on 9 September 1967, filling the workings with thick smoke as some 300 miners fought their way to the surface. Nine men died; the bodies of three were never recovered, and remain in the sealed workings to this day. The fire closed the colliery for good.	9 September 1967	Fire	Fife	9
2010s
Daw Mill Colliery fire, 2013 An underground fire caused by spontaneous combustion broke out at Daw Mill Colliery, Britain's biggest coal producer, described as the worst underground blaze in the UK for thirty years; all 92 workers underground were safely evacuated, but the fire could not be extinguished and led directly to the mine's permanent closure and UK Coal's collapse into administration.	22 February 2013	Fire	Warwickshire	0
Boulby Mine underground fire, 2016 A fire involving polystyrene blocks broke out 1,100m below the sea bed and around 8km from land at Boulby potash mine in the early hours of 13 April 2016; eleven workers were found by the mine rescue team, seven of them treated in hospital for smoke inhalation and shock before being discharged the same day. No deaths.	13 April 2016	Fire	North Yorkshire	0