Rescue disasters

A notable rescue operation, regardless of cause.

See all disasters, including type and year filtering.

5 disasters.

• Bryngwiog Mine inrush, 1862
  February 1862 · Flooding / Inundation · Flintshire · 16 fatalities
  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.
• 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.
• Big Pit fire (1913)
  7 April 1913 · Fire · Torfaen · 3 fatalities
  Three men died in a fire near the underground stables while trying to rescue the pit ponies stabled there; the horses survived.
• Keppel Cove dam burst, 1927
  night of 28–29 October 1927 · Flooding / Inundation · Cumbria
  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.
• 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.