Gas / Asphyxiation disasters

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

See all disasters, including type and year filtering.

4 disasters.

• Leadhills (Minehill) suffocation, 1817
  1817 · Gas / Asphyxiation · South Lanarkshire · 7 fatalities
  Seven miners were suffocated by fumes from a pumping engine at the Minehill workings at Leadhills in 1817 — a disaster local accounts say discouraged mining there for years afterwards.
• Magpie Mine suffocation of three Maypitt miners
  1833 · Gas / Asphyxiation · Derbyshire · 3 fatalities
  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.
• Snaefell Mine disaster
  10 May 1897 · Gas / Asphyxiation · Isle of Man
  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.
• Greenside Mine fire, 1952
  7 July 1952 · Fire · Cumbria · 4 fatalities
  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.