Rescue disasters

A notable rescue operation, regardless of cause.

See all disasters, including filtering by type.

94 disasters, in date order.

Disaster	Date	Type	Region	Fatalities
1810s
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
Pentrefron Colliery flooding, 1819 Pentrefron Colliery at Coedpoeth was drowned out by water in September 1819; two men drowned, and a third, John Evans, was found alive in a roof cavity after twelve days, having lived on candles.	27 September 1819	Flooding / Inundation	Wrexham	2
1840s
Quarter Colliery Explosion On 16 March 1841 an explosion underground at Quarter Colliery, near Hamilton in Lanarkshire, killed every one of the seven people working below at the time, one of them a boy. Four more men died in the attempt to reach them, so that the rescue cost almost as many lives as the explosion itself. Eleven died in all. The pit belonged to the Duke of Hamilton and was operated by the ironmasters Colin, Dunlop & Co.	16 March 1841	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	11
Oaks Colliery explosion, 1847 A firedamp explosion at Oaks Colliery (then also known as Ardsley Main) killed 73 men and boys — at the time regarded as the first really serious explosion in the South Yorkshire Coalfield.	5 March 1847	Explosion	South Yorkshire	73
1850s
Old Coal Pit Explosion, Coalbrookdale (1856) An explosion caused by neglected ventilation rules at the Old Coal Pit, Coalbrookdale, killed eleven men and boys, including two who died attempting a rescue.	3 July 1856	Explosion	Shropshire	11
1860s
Bryngwiog Mine inrush, 1862 Sixteen men drowned when Bryngwiog Mine, on Halkyn Mountain, broke into the flooded old workings of the abandoned Hendre Mine and filled with water within minutes — one of the worst disasters in the district's lead-mining history.	February 1862	Flooding / Inundation	Flintshire	16
Oaks Colliery explosion, 1866 Two explosions on successive days at Oaks Colliery killed 388 men and boys — 361 miners and 27 rescuers — and for nearly fifty years it was the worst mining disaster in English history.	12-13 December 1866	Explosion	South Yorkshire	388
Swan Lane Colliery explosion, 1868 On 'reckoning Monday', 17 August 1868, when only day men were in Swan Lane Colliery, Hindley Green, the collier Charles Abbott fired gas with his naked light in an unbratticed working place in the Four Feet. Two men who went in after him died in the afterdamp. The owner was fined for neglecting the first general rule.	17 August 1868	Explosion	Greater Manchester	3
Hendreforgan Colliery Explosion, 1869 A firedamp explosion shortly after thirteen men and boys started work killed six of them, the youngest an eleven-year-old door-boy. The pit was worked with open lamps and poorly ventilated, and a change to the airways days before had left three workings on one air current. The inquest jury asked the coroner to reprimand the owner, Alexander Bain, for putting the colliery in incompetent hands.	11 November 1869	Explosion	Neath Port Talbot	6
1870s
Pentre Colliery Explosion, 1871 An explosion on the night shift at Pentre Colliery in the Rhondda on 24 February 1871 killed thirty-eight men and boys. The blast wrecked one side of the headgear, and a rescue party of five was overcome by afterdamp the moment its cage reached the pit bottom; two of the five died and are counted among the dead.	24 February 1871	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	38
Pelsall Hall Colliery inundation, 1872 A little before nine on Thursday 14 November 1872 a collier named Michael Cash, driving a heading at Pelsall Hall Colliery near Walsall, holed into old unrecorded workings full of water. Within minutes the water sealed the deep workings from the shaft. A few men escaped by clinging to the cage; twenty-two men and boys were cut off. When the pit was pumped out, ten were found together in a dry refuge, dead from chokedamp; one body was never recovered.	14 November 1872	Flooding / Inundation	West Midlands	22
Tynewydd Colliery inundation, 1877 At about four on the afternoon of 11 April 1877, as the men were about to leave, water from the flooded old workings of Cymmer Colliery broke through the boundary barrier into Tynewydd Colliery at Porth. Of fourteen men underground, two drowned at once and two more in a flooded heading; a fifth was killed by escaping compressed air as rescuers broke through to his group. Four men and a boy survived in an air pocket for more than nine days until they were reached through 38 yards of coal on 20 April, a rescue followed across Britain that brought the first Albert Medals awarded for gallantry on land.	11 April 1877	Flooding / Inundation	Rhondda Cynon Taf	5
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
1880s
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
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
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
Moorfield Colliery explosion, 1883 At 8.50 a.m. on Wednesday 7 November 1883 a sudden outburst of firedamp exploded in the Moorfield pit between Accrington and Clayton-le-Moors, killing sixty-eight men and boys, the youngest ten, and seriously injuring thirty-nine. Men who had seen gas burning in their lamps had run to the shaft and were waiting for the cage when the blast reached them. The jury could not say how the gas was fired; the Inspector recommended abandoning the Davy lamp.	7 November 1883	Explosion	Lancashire	68
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
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
Udston Colliery explosion, 1887 At about nine o'clock on Saturday 28 May 1887, as men were breaking for food, an explosion swept through the Splint Coal workings of Udston Colliery near Hamilton, sending flame up both shafts. Seventy-three men and boys died, 53 burned and 20 suffocated; only two men and a pony driver in the Splint survived. H.M. Inspector Ralph Moore blamed a shot fired in secret that ignited gas and then coal dust. It is said to be Scotland's second worst coal mining disaster, and Keir Hardie called the deaths murder.	28 May 1887	Explosion	South Lanarkshire	73
Drakewalls Mine Entombment and Rescue, 1889 Two miners filling a worked-out area at Drakewalls Mine were buried when the sand they were releasing ran too fast. After two nights of failed attempts, a second rescue led by the pitman Thomas Chapman blasted a channel down to them with small charges of dynamite, and both were pulled out alive at midnight after food and water had been lowered 18 fathoms to them.	5 February 1889	Other	Cornwall	0
1890s
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
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
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
Diglake Colliery Inrush, 1895 At about 11.30 on the morning of Monday 14 January 1895, after a winter of deep snow and thaw, water from the flooded workings of the old Diglake pit, abandoned since about 1850, burst into the new Ten Feet workings of Diglake or Audley Colliery at Bignall End and poured down the dip through the mine, drowning 77 men and boys of the 240 or so underground. About 160 escaped through the Boyle's Hall shaft, many led out by the under-manager William Dodd and the collier John Boulton, who went back into the rising water again and again and were decorated for it. A dam of tubs and timber at the foot of the dip and the threat of further floods and gas forced the rescue to be abandoned within the week with only two bodies recovered. The inquiry could not show how the water got in, called it an unforeseen accident, and left the men where they lay; three skeletons were found in 1932-33 and the workings were sealed.	14 January 1895	Flooding / Inundation	Staffordshire	77
Plumbley Colliery drownings On the evening of 16 March 1895 three children fell through the ice on a pond at Plumbley Colliery, near Eckington in Derbyshire, and drowned; Alfred Williamson, an engineman at the colliery, died trying to save them.	16 March 1895	Other	South Yorkshire	4
Auchenharvie Colliery inrush, 1895 At about three in the afternoon on 2 August 1895, water burst out of old workings into the rise of Auchenharvie's No. 4 Pit and swept down the inclines to the shaft and on into the dook. Nine people drowned, four of them brothers and two of them children. Five more were entombed behind a blockage and dug out alive two days later.	2 August 1895	Flooding / Inundation	North Ayrshire	9
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
Auldhouseburn Colliery inundation, 1898 Men cross-cutting eastward in the Bankhead pit of Auldhouseburn Colliery holed into the flooded workings of the long-abandoned Crossflat pit on the morning of Friday 11 March 1898. The water rose twelve feet in the shaft and cut off nineteen men in the steep rise workings above the main roadway. Three who had been working near the roadway and had time to act on the warning were overwhelmed and drowned. The other sixteen were brought out alive the next morning after a night and a day underground, led by the fireman Robert Blyth, who stayed with them and then swam the flooded roadway neck-deep to ring the pit bell.	11 March 1898	Flooding / Inundation	East Ayrshire	3
Annagher Pit fireball, 1898 Coal had been coming out of the new Annagher pit for barely a month when, shortly after one o'clock on 29 September 1898, gas ignited sixty metres down and engulfed four miners in a fireball. Three died. Two men who went back down after them were decorated for it, one with the Royal Humane Society's highest award.	29 September 1898	Explosion	County Tyrone	3
Benarty Pit firedamp explosion, 1899 Early on Monday 22 May 1899 firedamp exploded in a heading of Benarty Pit, near Kelty, where two men had been repairing a roadway overnight. Joseph Hamilton was killed outright and Michael Casey died within a day; the fireman James Morton, his leg broken, crawled a hundred yards towards safety.	22 May 1899	Explosion	Fife	2
Glanmwrwg Colliery inrush, 1899 On the morning of Saturday 9 December 1899 a collier at Glanmwrwg Colliery, Llangennech, holed into old flooded workings. One of the two men caught at the deepest level was drowned; the other hung by one arm from a roof timber for nearly eleven hours until three of his fellow workmen swam in and pulled him out.	9 December 1899	Flooding / Inundation	Carmarthenshire	1
1900s
Donibristle Colliery Moss Inrush At about twenty to two on the afternoon of 26 August 1901, soft peat began to flow into a heading in the East section of the Mynheer seam workings at Donibristle Colliery in west Fife. Most of the colliery ran beneath Mossmorran, a square mile of moss 450 feet above sea level, and two men probing upward with a rod to form an air shaft brought it down on themselves. Eight men died, smothered rather than drowned. Six were brought out alive, and the rescue was extraordinary in its own right: some three hundred volunteers came forward, and two of the rescuers were themselves trapped the following day and had to be got out in turn.	26 August 1901	Flooding / Inundation	Fife	8
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
Swanwick Colliery cage accident, 1904 On 29 March 1904 a cage carrying six men down the shaft at Swanwick Colliery, Derbyshire, stuck fast in its wooden conductors. Three of the men were thrown out and fell more than seventy yards to the shaft bottom; the other three held on and were rescued about an hour later.	1904	Winding / Shaft Accident	Derbyshire	3
New Boston Colliery roof fall, 1905 On Sunday 16 July 1905 the under-manager Samuel Cook took fifteen men down New Boston Colliery to secure the main brow in the Ravenhead Higher Delf, which had been falling for a week where water from old workings had weakened the roof. As they put up a great baulk to finish the timbering a second fall knocked out six bars and buried the party: Cook, his brother James, and the datallers Daniel Baines, Thomas Woolam and Thomas Waterworth were killed, and two more were dug out alive after twelve hours. The inquest at the Waggon and Horses found accidental death.	16 July 1905	Collapse / Roof Fall	Merseyside	5
Caradog Vale Colliery inundation, 1906 On the afternoon of Tuesday 26 June 1906 the face of a stall at Caradog Vale Colliery, a small level near Gilfach Goch, broke through into flooded old workings. Four colliers drowned, and two more survived six days trapped in the dark before rescuers reached them. The agent and manager were tried for manslaughter and acquitted.	26 June 1906	Flooding / Inundation	Rhondda Cynon Taf	4
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
Maypole Colliery explosion, 1908 At ten past five in the evening of 18 August 1908, an explosion of firedamp and coal dust tore through the Four Feet seam at Maypole Colliery, Abram, killing 76 men — Wigan's worst mining disaster. The blast wrecked the pithead winding gear and the fan house that ventilated the whole mine, and it took until 1917, nine years later, to recover the last body.	18 August 1908	Explosion	Lancashire	76
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
Darran Colliery Explosion, 1909 At about four on the morning of Friday 29 October 1909, with fifty night-shift men underground, Darran Colliery exploded. The blast vented up the upcast shaft and shattered the pit-head casing, and it disabled the winding shaft. Twenty-seven died — five of them rescuers whose breathing apparatus did not hold enough oxygen to get them out again.	29 October 1909	Explosion	Caerphilly	27
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
1910s
Water Haigh Colliery shaft disaster, 1910 During the sinking of Water Haigh Colliery at Woodlesford, near Leeds, the sides of No. 1 shaft collapsed on the morning of 7 May 1910, burying and killing six men before the pit had raised any coal.	7 May 1910	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Yorkshire	6
Water Haigh Colliery shaft collapse, November 1910 Six months after the shaft disaster of May 1910, the sides of No. 1 shaft at Water Haigh gave way again on 17 November 1910. Four of the ten men at the bottom were caught by the falling shale, timber and iron rings: one was killed outright and another died of his injuries in Leeds Infirmary.	17 November 1910	Winding / Shaft Accident	West Yorkshire	2
Kemberton Colliery Pit Cage Disaster (1910) A winding rope that had been tested sound that same morning suddenly fractured during a descent at Kemberton Colliery, killing seven men and boys, three of them fourteen or younger.	Sunday night, 4 December 1910	Winding / Shaft Accident	Shropshire	7
Bug and Wink Colliery roof fall and rescue attempt, 1910 In December 1910 a fall of roof buried Charles Marshall, a 23-year-old shifter, at the Bug and Wink colliery, Coleorton. His mate William Birch freed himself and kept digging for him through three more falls, until Marshall was covered completely; he was dead when he was got out, and Birch received the Edward Medal.	14 December 1910	Collapse / Roof Fall	Leicestershire	1
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
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
Cwmaman Colliery gas explosion, 1911 Around midday on Saturday 16 September 1911 an outburst of gas and an explosion in the main intake of the Hafod district at Cwmaman Colliery, near Aberdare, killed the lampman William Bryant and the haulier Thomas Davies and injured two more. Dust poured from the top of the pit. About 600 men were brought out, and the 1,600 at neighbouring Fforchwen, joined to Cwmaman underground, were ordered out too. Davies was a sergeant in the rescue brigade that came to recover him.	16 September 1911	Explosion	Rhondda Cynon Taf	2
Cadeby Main Colliery disaster, 1912 A firedamp explosion at Cadeby Main Colliery in the early hours of 9 July 1912 killed 35 men outright, with three more later dying of their injuries; a second explosion that same day killed 53 members of the rescue party sent to recover the dead, bringing the total death toll to 91 — one of the worst mining disasters in British history.	9 July 1912	Explosion	South Yorkshire	91
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
Senghenydd colliery disaster, 1913 An explosion in the western workings of Universal Colliery killed 439 miners and one rescuer — the worst mining disaster in British history.	14 October 1913	Explosion	Caerphilly	440
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
Holmewood Colliery Entombment and Rescue, 1920 A heavy fall of roof shut two men into a space fifteen yards by ten feet at Holmewood Colliery. They were known to be unhurt but it would take days to reach them, and further falls came down over the next forty-eight hours. They were fed through a pipe and freed after four days, and four of the men who dug them out were given the Edward Medal by the King.	22 September 1920	Collapse / Roof Fall	Derbyshire	0
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
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
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
Bilsthorpe Colliery Piping Collapse (1927) A burst water pipe brought roughly 100 tons of shattered ironwork crashing down the sinking shaft, killing fourteen men working below.	1 March 1927	Winding / Shaft Accident	Nottinghamshire	14
Keppel Cove dam burst, 1927 After a night of exceptional rainfall and gale-force winds, the earth dam supplying Greenside Mine's hydro-electric power at Keppel Cove was overtopped and burst, sending a flood down into Glenridding village that wrecked shops, bridges and a hotel — four hotel staff were rescued from a flooding basement.	night of 28–29 October 1927	Flooding / Inundation	Cumbria	0
Fleets Colliery inrush, 1929 On Friday 1 March 1929 a shot fired to hole into a disused working above Fleets No. 1 Pit, Tranent, released a torrent of water and black damp. George Johnstone, 27, waded back through water to his chin to warn fifty men working deeper in. All were brought out alive that afternoon. The company's officials were later prosecuted.	1 March 1929	Flooding / Inundation	East Lothian	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
1930s
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
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
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
Brynamman Colliery Inrush, 1933 Water broke into a slant at Brynamman Colliery, trapping miners in the dark and flooding the roadway out. Two colliers, Thomas Thomas and Daff Davies, led four men and seven boys aged fourteen to sixteen to safety, Thomas going back for a group still trapped and coming out last. He received the Edward Medal, later exchanged for the George Cross.	21 September 1933	Flooding / Inundation	Carmarthenshire	0
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
1940s
Collins Green Colliery roof fall, 1940 Seven men were relocating a turbine in the main level of the Collins Green Pit at Bold when a section of roof collapsed on them on 14 February 1940, injuring two and completely burying five; three were dug out alive over the following hours but two, including the overman's own father, died after more than thirty hours under the fall. Two rescuers were awarded the Edward Medal.	14 February 1940	Collapse / Roof Fall	Merseyside	2
Upton Colliery Explosion, 1940 Shortly before midnight on 4 June 1940 an explosion tore along a longwall face in the No. 2 district of the Barnsley seam at Upton Colliery, about a mile and a half from the pit bottom. Six men were killed and eight burned. It was believed that a stopping sealing off an area where a fire had burned some months earlier had blown out.	4 June 1940	Explosion	West Yorkshire	6
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
Kennox Colliery Flood (1943) A sudden inrush of water flooded Kennox No. 7 mine, Douglas, trapping three men of one family; a thirteen-day national rescue effort ultimately failed to reach them alive.	30 May 1943	Flooding / Inundation	South Lanarkshire	3
Newlands Colliery roof fall rescue, 1944 A heavy roof fall at Newlands Colliery, Kenfig Hill, in September 1944 trapped two colliers; the under-manager William Jenkins, already twenty-two hours underground, was trapped and injured by further falls but brought both men out, and was awarded the Edward Medal in Silver.	21 September 1944	Collapse / Roof Fall	Bridgend	0
RAF Fauld explosion, 1944 An accident during routine ordnance handling at the RAF's underground ammunition depot, built into a disused Staffordshire gypsum mine, detonated thousands of tonnes of stored explosives — the largest explosion in British history, killing at least 70 people and leaving a crater over 1,000 feet across.	27 November 1944	Explosion	Staffordshire	70
Burngrange Oil Shale Mine explosion and fire, 1947 An open acetylene cap lamp ignited firedamp underground at Burngrange Oil Shale Mine on the evening of 10 January 1947, triggering an explosion and fire that killed 15 of the 53 men underground that shift — the greatest single loss of life in the history of Scotland's shale oil industry.	10 January 1947	Explosion	Midlothian	15
Felinfran Colliery Explosion, 1947 An explosion of gas 1,800 yards underground, while fourteen men were carrying out maintenance over the Easter holiday, killed two of them and injured six. Smoke hampered their escape, and a mines rescue team went down in breathing apparatus to help bring out the injured along a damaged haulage road.	6 April 1947	Explosion	Swansea	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
Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery Inrush A sudden inrush of liquefied peat and moss flooded Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery on the evening of 7 September 1950, trapping 129 miners underground; 116 were led to safety over the following three days in one of the most dramatic rescues in British mining history, but 13 died.	7 September 1950	Flooding / Inundation	East Ayrshire	13
Easington Colliery explosion, 1951 An underground explosion in the Fifth ('Duckbill') district of Easington Colliery killed 81 miners outright, with two rescue workers later dying from the effects of afterdamp — one of the worst British colliery disasters of the 20th century.	29 May 1951	Explosion	County Durham	83
Weetslade Colliery Explosion At 6.45 a.m. on Monday 1 October 1951 an explosion of firedamp swept the 3rd East District of the Bensham Seam at Weetslade Colliery, killing the deputy Thomas Whitney and the four men of his pumping and repair shift. The district had been gassed out for five days after flooding from old workings above wrecked its return airway and the manager short-circuited the ventilation to keep a pump running. Recovering the bodies took until November 1952 and the investigation until April 1953, held up first by rising water and then by the discovery of an explosive hydrogen-methane mixture given off by broken shuttle-car batteries, which forced the district to be deliberately flooded. The inquiry could not fix a definite cause, but found the only possible source of ignition to be an arc on the battery of a shuttle car the men had been using to move a fan.	1 October 1951	Explosion	Tyne and Wear	5
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
Walsall Wood Colliery Collapse (1956) A collapsed roof junction in the Charles Seam at Walsall Wood Colliery killed four men on 9 October 1956; a fifth was rescued alive after some seven hours trapped in the debris.	9 October 1956	Collapse / Roof Fall	Staffordshire	4
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
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
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
Ystrad Colliery Explosion, Glanamman, 1978 A gas explosion in a heading about half a mile into Ystrad Colliery, a small licensed anthracite mine at Glynmoch, Glanamman, killed two colliers, David Fish and Vivian Brown. Cigarette ends and matches were found in the heading afterwards, but at the inquest no witness had seen anyone smoke, and the coroner recorded that the cause remained unknown.	11 May 1978	Explosion	Carmarthenshire	2
1990s
Bilsthorpe Colliery Roof Collapse (1993) A roof collapse caused by unsafe roof bolting killed three men nearly 2,000 feet underground as they drove a tunnel toward a new coal seam; an under-manager was posthumously awarded the George Medal for warning his colleagues.	18 August 1993	Collapse / Roof Fall	Nottinghamshire	3
2000s
The Longannet Flooding On the evening of Saturday 23 March 2002, roadways near the bottom of the Castlehill section of the Longannet Complex flooded within minutes, most likely through or around an underground dam sealing off older, worked-out ground. Fifteen men underground at the time were evacuated safely; the mine never reopened, ending deep coal mining in Scotland.	23 March 2002	Flooding / Inundation	Fife	0
Wheal Mary Ann Footway Shaft Rescue A volunteer clearing the Footway Shaft at the disused Wheal Mary Ann (recorded in the Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service's own report as 'St Mary's Lead Works') was trapped chest-deep when part of a drainage trench collapsed on him, triggering a rescue involving Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service, paramedics, an RAF Sea King helicopter and the Cornwall Air Ambulance.	13 November 2007	Collapse / Roof Fall	Cornwall	0
2010s
Gleision Colliery Flooding, 2011 Four miners drowned at the small drift mine Gleision Colliery when a controlled blast, intended to breach into disused flooded workings for ventilation, instead released around 650,000 gallons of water into the tunnel where seven men were working -- the worst mining disaster in Wales in three decades.	15 September 2011	Flooding / Inundation	Neath Port Talbot	4
Cwm Ebol Reservoir Dam Breach (2012) A landslip cracked the dam wall of Cwm Ebol quarry's old mill reservoir and blocked its sluice gates, causing water to overtop the structure and prompting the precautionary evacuation of the nearby village of Pennal.	10 June 2012	Surface / Tip Failure	Gwynedd	0