Gas / Asphyxiation disasters

Bad air, blackdamp, afterdamp and other irrespirable atmospheres, not preceded by an explosion.

See all disasters, including filtering by type.

103 disasters, in date order.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
1780s
Scott's Pit explosion, 1788 Thirteen men died of afterdamp after an explosion caused by naked lights at a Llansamlet colliery on 14 March 1788. Welsh Coal Mines places it at Scott's Pit, begun by Captain John Scott in the 1770s; the Durham Mining Museum records the same date, cause, toll and the same thirteen names under the name Llansamlet. Three of the dead were a father and his two sons.	14 March 1788	Explosion	Swansea	13
1810s
Leadhills (Minehill) suffocation, 1817 Seven men died in the Leadhills Company's mines on 1 March 1817, poisoned by smoke from an underground engine that had filled the workings with sulphurous gas — four who had gone down early to get their shift over sooner, and three more at the 80 fathom level, two of whom died going to help the others.	1 March 1817	Gas / Asphyxiation	South Lanarkshire	7
Harraton Nova Scotia Pit Chokedamp Deaths, 1817 Two days after the Row Pit explosion killed thirty-eight at Harraton, eight men went down the colliery's Nova Scotia pit to repair shaft damage the blast had done. Chokedamp from the Row Pit had entered the workings. A second party sent to find them was driven back by it, and the eight had to be left to their fate.	2 July 1817	Gas / Asphyxiation	Tyne and Wear	8
1820s
Newbottle Colliery Elizabeth Pit gas disaster, 1821 On 19 October 1821 six men died in the Elizabeth Pit of Newbottle (Nesham's) Colliery when a brattice built up against old workings broke and gas came through. Their candles went on burning in it and gave no warning.	1821	Gas / Asphyxiation	Tyne and Wear	6
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
Wallsend Colliery Explosion At about two o'clock on the afternoon of 18 June 1835, an explosion tore through Wallsend Colliery on Tyneside and killed 102 men and boys — the worst of ten separate disasters recorded at a pit already notorious for them. The youngest of the dead was eight. Among them were trappers and putters of eleven, seventeen and nineteen, and whole families were hit: the Applebys lost Henry, a putter of seventeen, and James, a trapper of eleven. Many of the dead lie in unmarked graves in the churchyard of St Peter's, Wallsend.	18 June 1835	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	102
St Hilda’s Colliery Explosion On the morning of 28 June 1839 an explosion tore through the western workings of St Hilda’s pit in the middle of South Shields, killing 51 men and boys. Most died not in the blast but of afterdamp. The inquest returned accidental death with a recommendation that working coal mines by candlelight be abandoned in favour of lamps, and a Committee for the Investigation of Accidents in Mines was formed in the town shortly afterwards — its report weighed the merits of the various safety lamps and did much to improve mine safety nationally.	28 June 1839	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	51
1840s
Eaglesbush Colliery Explosion, 1848 Gas that had gathered in the old stalls of Eaglesbush Colliery near Neath exploded soon after three o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday 29 March 1848, and the gas in the other stalls exploded after it. About thirty men and boys were at work and twenty were killed, most of them by afterdamp; some were found to have been trying to get out along a level with their way blocked by wagons. The colliery had no artificial ventilation and naked lights were allowed. The inquest returned accidental death.	29 March 1848	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	20
Lletty Shenkin Colliery Explosion, 1849 An explosion of firedamp at Lletty Shenkin Colliery, Cwmbach, on the afternoon of Friday 10 August 1849 killed fifty-two of the 112 men and boys underground. Only about five were burned; the rest were suffocated by the afterdamp. The inquest returned accidental death with a rider that the colliery's old workings should be separately ventilated and never connected with the intake air.	10 August 1849	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	52
1850s
Middle Duffryn Colliery Explosion, 1852 Ninety-two men and boys went down Middle Duffryn Colliery on the morning of Monday 10 May 1852. Shortly before nine o'clock a fall in the deep heading released gas which exploded; sixty-four died and twenty-eight came out alive. Fifty-five were killed in the explosion and its afterdamp, and nine more died escaping when the platform they had gathered on in the shaft gave way. It was the worst disaster in the Cynon valley to that date.	10 May 1852	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	64
Ynisdavid Colliery Explosion, 1856 An explosion of gas in the Big Vein at Ynisdavid Colliery, Cwmavon, on 24 May 1856 killed twelve colliers. Eight were burnt and mutilated and four died of the effects of gas and their injuries; they were found lying within a short distance of one another. The ground was known to be dangerous, safety lamps only were allowed, and two large Struvé ventilators were being erected but were not yet finished.	24 May 1856	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	12
Cymmer Colliery Explosion, 1856 On the morning of 15 July 1856, 160 men and boys went down the Old Pit at Cymmer Colliery near Porth for the six o'clock shift. A gas explosion near the mine entrance trapped those already deeper in; 114 died, most of them of afterdamp. Forty-nine were boys under sixteen, fifteen of them under twelve. The mine's manager and four officials were charged with manslaughter and all were acquitted.	15 July 1856	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	114
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
Primrose Colliery Disaster, 1858 On 13 October 1858 the fumes of an engine boiler suffocated fourteen men and boys, and seven horses, underground at the Primrose Colliery near Rhos. The colliery was then owned by Morgan and Lewis, and was afterwards redeveloped as the New Primrose Colliery.	13 October 1858	Gas / Asphyxiation	Neath Port Talbot	14
Yew Tree Colliery Explosion, 1858 A firedamp explosion in Yew Tree Colliery's Crombuke mine, caused by a skipped safety inspection, killed 25 men and boys -- the worst mining disaster in Tyldesley's history.	11 December 1858	Explosion	Lancashire	25
Woodmuir chokedamp deaths, 1859 On 18 May 1859 two colliers clearing out an old pit at Woodmuir, near Breich in West Lothian, were overcome by chokedamp and suffocated. Thomas Greenwood and William Thornton died at a working of Thomas Thornton's, decades before the Woodmuir colliery of 1896 was sunk.	18 May 1859	Gas / Asphyxiation	West Lothian	2
1860s
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
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
Hartley Colliery disaster, 1862 The cast-iron beam of New Hartley Colliery's pumping engine fractured and fell down the mine's single shaft during a shift changeover, blocking the only way in or out and sealing 204 men and boys underground, all of whom died of suffocation over the following days despite a sustained rescue effort. The disaster's central lesson — that a mine with only one shaft has no way out if that shaft fails — led directly to a change in the law within months.	16 January 1862	Winding / Shaft Accident	Northumberland	204
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
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
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
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
Snydale Colliery powder-fume deaths On 25 August 1869 two colliers were suffocated by powder smoke after firing a shot at Snydale Colliery, near Pontefract in the West Riding, in a heading where the brattice had been left far short of the face.	25 August 1869	Gas / Asphyxiation	West Yorkshire	2
1870s
Leeswood Green Blackdamp Deaths, 1872 Two Leeswood men, Morgan Edwards and Frank Jones, were killed at the Leeswood Green pit on 26 July 1872, the cause of death recorded as choked by blackdamp caused by deficient ventilation. Frank Jones left a wife and a number of children.	26 July 1872	Gas / Asphyxiation	Flintshire	2
Bwllfa Dare Colliery Sinking Explosion (1874) Two sinkers were killed and a third badly injured when they ignited gas blowers while sinking a new shaft at Bwllfa Dare Colliery, Cwmdare, on 18 May 1874.	18 May 1874	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	2
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
East Cannock Colliery Explosion (1877) A methane explosion at East Cannock Colliery in 1877 killed four boys and four pit horses, and seriously injured two men.	31 August 1877	Explosion	Staffordshire	4
Seaton Burn Colliery suffocation, 1877 On 3 September 1877 two men at Seaton Burn Colliery, Northumberland, went down the shaft to repair the damage the cages had done when a winding rope broke. In a side drift close to the shaft they were overcome, it was thought, by fumes from the ventilating furnace, and both died.	3 September 1877	Gas / Asphyxiation	Tyne and Wear	2
Blantyre Mining Disaster A firedamp explosion tore through Pits No. 2 and No. 3 of William Dixon's colliery at High Blantyre on the morning of 22 October 1877, killing 207 men and boys -- the worst mining disaster in Scottish history.	22 October 1877	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	207
Unity Brook Colliery explosion Gas escaping from a roof fall exploded in the lower Cannel mine at Unity Brook Colliery, Kearsley, killing forty-three men and boys — the worst day in the town’s history. Nineteen were buried at the parish church. The jury returned accidental death, praised the management, and refused to recommend safety lamps in place of the naked candles the pit worked by.	12 March 1878	Explosion	Greater Manchester	43
Blantyre Colliery Explosion, 1879 A second firedamp explosion at Dixon's Blantyre No. 1 pit, less than two years after the catastrophic 1877 disaster at the same colliery group, killed 28 men and boys.	2 July 1879	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	28
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
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
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
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
Newton Colliery shaft collapse, 1884 In August 1884 the timber lining of the shaft at Newton Colliery, Newton-on-the-Moor, gave way and blocked it, and the furnaceman Thomas Riddell, at the ventilating furnace below, died in the foul air. Two days later more timber fell on the men sent to repair it, and John Purvis was knocked to the bottom and died.	12 August 1884	Winding / Shaft Accident	Northumberland	2
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
Newbottle Colliery Margaret Pit inrush, 1885 On 3 June 1885 men holing in the Maudlin Seam of the Margaret Pit at Newbottle broke into the abandoned workings of the old Elizabeth Pit, releasing an inrush of water and noxious gas. The water flooded the workings, but it was the gas that killed: at least twelve men died before they could reach the shaft.	3 June 1885	Flooding / Inundation	Tyne and Wear	12
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
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
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
1890s
Gilmerton Colliery chokedamp deaths, 1890 At eleven in the morning of 22 November 1890 two sinkers at the Gilmerton Gas Coal Company's colliery, on the south-eastern edge of Edinburgh, were suffocated by chokedamp. John King, 46, and Thomas Sharpe, 39, died together.	22 November 1890	Gas / Asphyxiation	Midlothian	2
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
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
Sharlston Colliery gas deaths, 1893 On 1 May 1893 three colliers were killed by gas at Sharlston Colliery, near Wakefield.	1 May 1893	Gas / Asphyxiation	West Yorkshire	3
Manners Colliery gas suffocation, 1893 A man and a boy of the same family were suffocated at Manners Colliery, Ilkeston, on 12 June 1893 by gas coming through a stopping they were building to seal off a fire in the mine.	12 June 1893	Gas / Asphyxiation	Derbyshire	2
Eppleton Colliery gas deaths, 1895 On 13 December 1895 a deputy walked through a fence into a place known to be foul with gas at Eppleton Colliery, near Hetton-le-Hole in County Durham, and he, a putter and a hewer who went in to save them were all overcome and died.	13 December 1895	Gas / Asphyxiation	Tyne and Wear	3
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
Swanwick Colliery gob-fire suffocation, 1902 Two men working in an airway at Swanwick Colliery that communicated with old workings were found dead on 23 January 1902; a few days later a gob-fire was found to have broken out in the Deep Soft coal.	23 January 1902	Gas / Asphyxiation	Derbyshire	2
Glencraig Colliery explosion, 1902 A firedamp explosion followed by afterdamp killed four men working in two parallel underground roadways at Glencraig Colliery on 3 April 1902 — one of three serious multi-fatality accidents in Fife within little more than a year.	3 April 1902	Explosion	Fife	4
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
West Stanley Colliery explosion, 1909 A coal-dust explosion at West Stanley Colliery — the Burns Pit — on the afternoon of 16 February 1909 killed some 167 men and boys across four seams, among them children of thirteen and fourteen. Around thirty came out alive, twenty-six of them led out by a deputy who kept them together in the dark.	16 February 1909	Explosion	County Durham	167
Caprington Colliery Inrush At 11.45 on the night of 10 December 1909 the roof of abandoned stoop-and-room workings in the Ell coal at Caprington Colliery, near Kilmarnock, gave way under a field that had flooded from the River Irvine. Water and gravel poured into the old workings, found their way to No. 41 pit and ran down the shaft, driving accumulated black damp in front of them. Of the sixteen people below ground, five escaped through the new air pit after raking out the ventilation furnace that blocked their way, and one was carried by the flood into the winding shaft and came out on top of the cage. The other ten drowned. The surface cover over the abandoned seam was about eighteen feet.	10 December 1909	Flooding / Inundation	East Ayrshire	10
Gurnos Colliery Explosion, 1909 A shot fired at the face just before 5 am ignited gas and engulfed the men nearby in flames, fatally burning the collier who had prepared it and burning the fireman. A repairer working further off, unhurt by the blast, set off towards the return airway rather than out of the mine and was later found a few yards away, overcome by gas.	17 December 1909	Explosion	Powys	2
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
Barrow Colliery gas outburst, 1911 A sudden outburst of gas through a borehole overcame the manager and three men driving a roadway to release an accumulation of gas at Barrow Colliery; the three men died. Collier George Edwards was awarded the Edward Medal, 2nd Class, for repeated attempts to reach them.	22 July 1911	Gas / Asphyxiation	Bridgend	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
Woodhorn Colliery explosion A repairing shift of thirteen men was setting steel roof girders in the Main Seam at Woodhorn when firedamp, accumulated over a weekend of reduced ventilation, was ignited by a naked light. All thirteen died.	13 August 1916	Explosion	Northumberland	13
Minnie Pit Explosion, 1918 At about 9.45 on the morning of Saturday 12 January 1918, pay day, with 248 men and boys underground, an explosion of firedamp in or near the goaf at the top of No. 4 district in the Bullhurst seam of the Minnie Pit developed into an explosion of coal dust that swept the roads of the Bullhurst and Banbury Seven Feet seams. It killed 155, 144 of them by the afterdamp, and 44 of the dead were boys under sixteen; forty-seven escaped through the old Bullhurst Rearers shaft at Miles Green. Hugh Doorbar, captain of the Birchenwood rescue brigade, died two days later in breathing apparatus. Because the seam was gassy and liable to heat, the recovery of the workings took eighteen months, the inquest could not sit until October 1919 and the inquiry reported in 1920, finding the probable cause a defective safety lamp and blaming no one, but noting that the dust had not been removed and that the fireman's district was too large.	12 January 1918	Explosion	Staffordshire	156
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
Ponthenry Colliery outburst, 1923 On 14 March 1923 two colliers were killed by an outburst of coal and gas in the No. 18 East district of Ponthenry Colliery, in Carmarthenshire, a pit notorious for such outbursts.	14 March 1923	Gas / Asphyxiation	Carmarthenshire	2
Ponthenry Colliery outburst, 1924 On the evening of 3 September 1924 a sudden outburst of fine coal and gas in 19 East, Pumpquart seam, of Ponthenry Colliery's Glynhir slant killed five men; two more were seriously gassed. Over twenty survived by lying face down, and eight rescuers were later honoured by the Carnegie Hero Trust.	3 September 1924	Gas / Asphyxiation	Carmarthenshire	5
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
Montagu View Pit disaster, 1925 An inrush at the View Pit of Montagu Colliery, Scotswood, on the morning of 30 March 1925. Three shots fired to straighten a coal face broke the last six inches of coal holding back the flooded workings of the Paradise Pit, abandoned in 1848, and water under about 80 pounds per square inch filled the workings. Of the 148 men and boys in the seam, 38 died: seventeen suffocated by blackdamp before the water reached them, the rest drowned. The public inquiry found that plans of the old workings existed but were not in the colliery's hands, and its recommendations reshaped the law on abandoned-mine plans.	30 March 1925	Flooding / Inundation	Tyne and Wear	38
Ponthenry Colliery outburst, 1928 On 10 July 1928 an outburst of fine coal dust and methane at Ponthenry Colliery in the Gwendraeth Valley killed two miners, seriously injured three and injured about twenty more. It was the last of the four fatal outbursts at the pit between 1920 and 1928.	10 July 1928	Gas / Asphyxiation	Carmarthenshire	2
South Garesfield Colliery carbon monoxide accident, 1929 On 17 May 1929 the deputy and shotfirer Richard Lowes and two pony drivers, William Matthew Malcolm, 14, and Joseph Taylor, 16, died of carbon monoxide in the Victoria seam of South Garesfield Colliery after blasting in a district with almost no air. Rescue parties saved others and five men received the Edward Medal.	17 May 1929	Gas / Asphyxiation	Tyne and Wear	3
Cadzow Colliery Gas Incident, 1929 A fireman and two miners were overcome and killed by gas at Cadzow Colliery, Hamilton, after going in to examine a place where a shot had just been fired on 10 October 1929.	10 October 1929	Gas / Asphyxiation	South Lanarkshire	3
1930s
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
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
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
Frickley Colliery gassing, 1931 Five deputies were overcome by carbon monoxide and died while reopening Frickley Colliery after its Christmas shutdown on 28 December 1931, in what became remembered locally as the darkest single day in the colliery's history.	28 December 1931	Gas / Asphyxiation	South Yorkshire	5
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
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
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
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
Highhouse Colliery gas escape, 1935 On 8 August 1935 two miners were killed by an escape of gas at Highhouse Colliery, near Auchinleck in Ayrshire.	8 August 1935	Gas / Asphyxiation	East Ayrshire	2
Great Mountain Colliery outburst, 1935 An outburst of fine coal and methane at Great Mountain Colliery, Tumble, on 31 October 1935 killed two miners, Edgar Owen Collins and Llewellyn Evans: the first of the pit's two fatal outbursts among 37 recorded between 1913 and 1959.	31 October 1935	Gas / Asphyxiation	Carmarthenshire	2
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
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
1940s
Usworth Colliery gassing, 1940 On 5 April 1940 two fillers were accidentally gassed and killed at Usworth Colliery, in County Durham.	5 April 1940	Gas / Asphyxiation	Tyne and Wear	2
Rhigos Colliery Explosion Between eight and nine on the evening of 10 July 1941, gas exploded about a mile inside No. 4 Drift at Rhigos Colliery, above the Vale of Neath. Sixteen men and boys were killed, all believed to have died instantly in the blast, out of 36 underground. The dead came from the Aberdare and Glynneath area and included a father and son, and five of them were aged 18 or under. At the September inquest the coroner concluded that the gas had been ignited by a miner smoking: cigarettes and matches were found on and beside the bodies.	10 July 1941	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	16
Bullcroft Colliery Explosion, 1941 Six men were killed outright by an ignition of gas at Bullcroft Colliery just after three in the morning on 19 October 1941. They were about 430 feet from the shaft bottom, and all but one were members of the mine rescue team, at work on problems within the mine.	19 October 1941	Explosion	South Yorkshire	6
Sneyd Colliery Explosion An explosion of coal dust in the Banbury seam of No. 4 pit at Sneyd Colliery, Burslem, at about ten minutes to eight on the morning of New Year's Day 1942, killed 57 men and boys. Miners traditionally did not cut coal on New Year's Day, but the manager had asked them to work for the war effort and they had agreed. The explosion was confined to one district; four of the sixty-one men in it came out alive.	1 January 1942	Explosion	Staffordshire	57
Carway Colliery outburst, 1944 An outburst of methane gas and fine coal in the 'Gowers' district of the Big Vein at Carway Colliery, Gwendraeth Valley, killed two colliers on the nightshift of 26 May 1944 -- the only outburst deaths in the mine's history.	26 May 1944	Other	Carmarthenshire	2
William Pit Explosion A shot fired in the No. 2 Dip face of the undersea workings at Whitehaven ignited firedamp and coal dust, two and a half miles out from the shaft. Fourteen men were killed by the blast. Ninety more survived it and then died of the carbon monoxide it left behind, before rescuers working through more than twenty hours could reach them.	15 August 1947	Explosion	Cumbria	104
1950s
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
Glyncorrwg Colliery Explosion On the morning of 13 January 1954 an explosion ran along the Panzer Face in the Six Feet Seam at Glyncorrwg Colliery. Of the 32 men in its path, 17 were severely burned and seven slightly; eight escaped unhurt and nobody was killed. A second explosion followed before noon the same day, and a third within the sealed district on 16-17 January. The official inquiry traced the ignition to a light-alloy roof bar: its rusted steel wedge had become smeared with aluminium in ordinary use, and when a collier struck it with a sledgehammer the resulting spark fired the methane. The Inspector recommended that light-alloy bars be prohibited on longwall faces with open wastes where inflammable gas was likely.	13 January 1954	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	0
Risehow Colliery Explosion Two men died at Risehow Colliery, Flimby, on the evening of 26 November 1957 when firedamp was ignited in a cross-measure drift as a round of shots was fired. The gas came from a feeder in the roof about 30 yards back from the face and had been detected repeatedly through the shift whenever the auxiliary fan stopped; the ignition came not from the explosives, which never fired, but from a spark in shotfiring cables carrying nearly forty crude, bare joints between them. The Inspector concluded that both deaths would have been avoided had the two simple distance conditions attached to the exploder’s Approval been observed.	26 November 1957	Explosion	Cumbria	2
Great Mountain Colliery outburst, 1958 A sudden outburst of coal at Great Mountain Colliery, Tumble, on the evening of 25 February 1958 killed three men; two escaped. The pit suffered 37 outbursts of fine coal and methane between 1913 and 1959, and the accident was raised in the Commons two days later.	25 February 1958	Gas / Asphyxiation	Carmarthenshire	3
Cae Glas Colliery Gassing, 1958 The mine's owner and two workmen were asphyxiated by gas while checking the water level in old, disused workings beyond the active faces at this small licensed drift mine.	24 September 1958	Gas / Asphyxiation	Merthyr Tydfil	3
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
Greenside Mine gas exposure, 1960 Two surface workers at Greenside Mine, William Sinkinson and Alex Santamara, died from gas exposure after entering abandoned stopes without authorisation, searching for mineral specimens, on the night before the mine's second Operation Orpheus test explosion. A rescue attempt by two colleagues left both men briefly overcome by the same gas, and earned them the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct; an inquest attached no blame to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment scientists then working at the mine.	14-15 January 1960	Gas / Asphyxiation	Cumbria	2
Six Bells Colliery explosion, 1960 A firedamp and coal dust explosion tore through the 'W' district of the Old Coal seam at Six Bells Colliery, Abertillery, at about 10:45 on the morning of 28 June 1960. Forty-five of the 48 men working in the district were killed. It remains the worst colliery disaster in Britain since the Second World War.	28 June 1960	Explosion	Blaenau Gwent	45
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
1970s
Cynheidre-Pentremawr outburst, 1971 Shortly after noon on 6 April 1971, a heading being driven in the No. 2 Cross Measure Driveage at Cynheidre erupted without warning, ejecting around 400 tons of fine coal and roughly two million cubic feet of firedamp into the workings. Six men were killed by asphyxiation, and the gas travelled far enough through the ventilation system to overcome dozens more at a longwall face a considerable distance away before a quick-thinking electrician shut down an auxiliary fan and slowed its spread.	6 April 1971	Gas / Asphyxiation	Carmarthenshire	6
1980s
Arkwright Town Methane Evacuation, 1988 Methane rising from the abandoned workings of Arkwright Colliery was found at explosive levels in the terraces of Arkwright Town six months after the pit closed; 110 people from 56 homes were evacuated for a fortnight, a pump was set in the old shaft, and British Coal eventually rebuilt the entire village on a new site and opencast the old one away.	9 November 1988	Gas / Asphyxiation	Derbyshire	0
2010s
Kellingley Colliery gas explosion, 2010 A methane explosion in Kellingley Colliery's 501's District during the evening shift on 23 November 2010 forced the evacuation of 218 miners. No one was killed or seriously injured, but a Health and Safety Executive investigation found a poorly maintained safety curtain had let an explosive gas mixture build up, and the mine's operator was later prosecuted and fined.	23 November 2010	Explosion	North Yorkshire	0
Boulby Mine gas blowout, 2016 Miner John Anderson, 56, was killed at Boulby Mine on 17 June 2016 by a sudden, powerful release of trapped gas — a 'gas blowout' around 15 metres across that displaced an estimated 1,000 tonnes of mineral, described by one expert witness as the biggest such blowout he had ever seen. It followed a separate fire at the mine only two months earlier that had injured seven workers.	17 June 2016	Other	North Yorkshire	1