Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	18th November 1935
Colliery:	Dean & Chapter
Cause:	Struck by shot
Lives Lost:	1

A stoneman was killed at Dean and Chapter Colliery, Durham. An airway four feet wide and two feet high was within five feet of holing into a longwall face. In the coal at the face of the airway a shot-hole 3 ft. 6 in. deep had been charged with eight ounces of explosive. The master shifter, who was an authorized shot-firer sent a stoneman to the conveyor face with instructions to see that all persons in the vicinity of where the shot was likely to blow through were in a place of safety and to guard the approach to the face. The shot-firer having been assured by a verbal message from the stoneman, who shouted through the coal that everything was all right and that he was retiring along the face to a place of safety, waited a period of five minutes to ensure the stoneman reaching safety. He then fired the charge. The shot blew through into the conveyor face, as was expected, but the stoneman was found dead in the small coal next to the holing. He either did not retire along the conveyor face or, owing to the length of time before the shot was fired, returned to see if anything was wrong.

It is the duty of the shot-firer to see that all persons in the vicinity have taken proper shelter. I fear this is not often done. If this rule had been fully observed in this case, and the adjoining face fenced off by the shot-firer, the accident would not have occurred.

Source:

1935 Mines Inspectors Report

	Blood, Albert, aged 34, Stoneman, struck by shot, Buried: York Road Cemetery, Spennymoor
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