Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	21st August 1898
Colliery:	Auckland, St. Helens
Cause:	Explosion of gas
Lives Lost:	2

About 5 p.m. on the afternoon of August 21st, operations were being carried on deepening a shaft at the St. Helen's Colliery near Bishop Auckland, the property of Messrs. Pease & Partners, Limited. The pit had been sunk about 10 fathoms below the original level in the Brockwell seam. The sinking was finished and the men were engaged putting in the walling, and were working on a scaffold about 24 feet below the original bottom of the shaft, and in order to square back the sides had prepared and charged four shots round the side.

During the sinking and walling ventilation was effected by means of a fan which forced the air down through a pipe 18 inches in diameter, and in the scaffold was a grid four feet by three feet up which the air returned. The quantity passing being about 1,100 cubic feet per minute. Near the bottom of a shaft a small blower of gas had been met with, but it caused no inconvenience, and the ventilation had been found to be quite sufficient to render it innocuous.

When the shots were ready for firing an examination of the shaft was made with a safety lamp and no gas was discovered, and two of the men got a naked light and ignited the fuzes and knocked themselves away, and they were drawn up some feet in the kibble before the explosion occurred.

There is no doubt as to the cause of the explosion, as a man named John Arthur, who was standing at the Brockwell level and looking down, saw all that occurred. The fuze of the last shot that was lit was hanging over the top of the grid, and the sparks from the powder in the fuze lit up some gas which no doubt had come from under the scaffold, and an explosion resulted.

The men were thrown out of the kibble and some gas in the shaft continued burning for a few seconds, but fortunately was knocked out by the concussion of the shots going off.

A considerable amount of damage was done to the scaffold and the timber in the shaft, and some difficulty was experienced in recovering the bodies of the two men. One, which had fallen into some water at the bottom of the shaft, was only recovered on the 24th, three days after the explosion.

In order to prevent the air pipe above mentioned from being damaged by the shots, a canvas tube of the same diameter as the pipes, about 12 feet long, had been fixed in position and connected to the two ends of the pipes, and instructions had been given that this was only to be removed immediately before firing. It was elicited at the official enquiry that this length of canvas tube had been disconnected, probably for at least five minutes, before the shots were fired, and this would prevent any ventilation passing below the scaffold for that time. The grid was open, but the side of the scaffold, where there usually was an open space of two or three inches, was covered with stones from previous shots on which the men had been standing to drill the holes, and this would prevent any gas passing away here and cause it to accumulate more readily below the scaffold.

The kibble into which the two men got after lighting the shots was hanging a foot or so above the grid, and the suction caused by its being drawn away probably caused some gas in a highly explosive condition to come up, and so to be ignited by the sparks from the fuze.

An inquest was opened on August 24th by Mr. J. T. Proud and adjourned till September 21st, in order to allow time for the injured men to recover, and for a thorough examination of the pit to be made. On that date the enquiry was reopened, there being present Messrs. T. Y. Greener, M. H. Kellet, T. Douglas, and J. Meek on behalf of the Company, Mr. Wilson, M.P., and Mr. Johnson on behalf of the miners, Mr. Plummer and myself.

Evidence was taken at considerable length and the above facts brought out. The Jury eventually returning the following verdict :— "The deceased men, J. H. Richardson and John Atkinson, were accidentally killed by an explosion of gas whilst following their ordinary employment, and we feel bound to suggest that greater precautions might have been exercised."

When asked to use some more definite expression as to the greater precautions, the Foreman said the Jury did not wish to say anything more than they had said.

Source:

1898 Mines Inspectors Report (C 9264), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian.

	Atkinson, John, aged 30, Sinker, Shots were being fired in a sinking pit, and as soon as the fuzes were lighted an explosion of gas occurred and killed these two men., Buried: West Auckland Cemetery
	Richardson, John Harrison, aged 52, Sinker, Shots were being fired in a sinking pit, and as soon as the fuzes were lighted an explosion of gas occurred and killed these two men., Buried: West Auckland Cemetery
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