Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	28th March 1806
Colliery:	Killingworth
Cause:	Explosion
Lives Lost:	10

Killingworth. Explosion with the loss of ten lives. Mr. George Stephenson, who was employed as brakesman, or engineman, at the pit at the time, and witnessed this explosion (which he ascribes to the want of a ventilating furnace), has furnished the following particulars:

"The pit had just ceased drawing coals, and nearly all the men had got out. It was some time in the afternoon, a little after midday; there were five men that went down the pit, four of them for the purpose of preparing a place for the furnace, the fifth was a person that went down to set them to work; this man had just got down to the bottom of the shaft, about two or three minutes, when the explosion took place; I sent the man down myself. I had left the mouth of the pit, and gone about 50 or 60 yards away, when I heard a tremendous noise, looked round, and saw the discharge come out of the pit mouth like the discharge of a cannon; it continued to blow, I think, for a quarter of an hour, discharging everything that had come into the current; there was wood came up, stones came up, and trusses of hay, that went up into the air like balloons; those trusses had been sent down during the day, and I think the trusses had in some measure injured the ventilation. The ground all round the top of the pit was in a trembling state; I went as near as I durst go, and everything appeared cracking and rending about me; part of the brattice, which was very strong, was blown away at the bottom of the pits; very large pumps were lifted from their places, so that the engine could not work. The pit was divided into four by partitions; it was a large pit, 14 feet diameter, and partitions put down at right angles, which formed four. The explosion took place in one of these four quarters, but it broke through into all the others at the bottom, and the brattice or partition was set on fire at the first explosion. After it had continued to blow for a quarter of an hour, as I have stated, the discharge ceased, and the atmosphere all round poured into the pit to fill up the vacant place that must have been formerly occupied by the flame. In one of the other pits, that was connected with this one in which the explosion took place by some doors in a drift leading from one pit to the other, several men, who were in the adjoining pit, were not reached by the explosion, and several of them got up safe. The ropes in the first shaft were shattered to pieces by the force of the blasts, but the ropes in the other pits were still left uninjured, at least they were very little injured. Nobody durst go near the shafts, for fear of another explosion taking place, for some time; at last we considered it necessary to run the rope backwards and forwards, and give the miners, if there were any at the bottom of the shaft, an opportunity of catching the rope as it came to the bottom; whenever the rope went to the bottom it was allowed to remain a short time till we considered they had time to cling to it; several men were got up in this way, and another man had got hold of the rope and was drawn away, when an explosion took place at the time he was in the shaft, but it was merely like the discharge of a gun, and it did not continue like the former blast. This man, it appeared, had been helped up so far with the increased current that came about him, and the rope running up at a great velocity, the man came up without being injured."

Four of the five men who went down, were afterwards found buried among the corves and little carriages at the pit bottom. The fifth, the overlooker, threw himself behind some pillars so that the current went past him. The flame came about him, and nearly all his clothes were burnt off his back, but he was one of those who escaped by the rope after the blast ceased.

The pit continued to blast every two or three hours for two days, the coal being on fire, but none of the explosions were equal to the first. The other shafts became wrecked very soon. The workings were drowned up in order to extinguish the fire, and the bodies of the unfortunate victims were not recovered for twenty-three or twenty-four weeks.

Source:

Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade by Robert L. Galloway. Published in 1898.

	Brown, James, aged 19
	Brown, William, aged 34
	Curry, Robert, aged 60
	Jobbs, James, aged 56
	Mood, William, aged 44
	Reed, William, aged 37
	Taylor, William, aged 40
	Wakes, Edward, aged 22
	8 of 10 names found
	Youngest: 19 years old ; Oldest: 60 ; Average: 39

 

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