Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	6th May 1852
Colliery:	Hebburn
Cause:	Explosion of firedamp, caused by naked light
Lives Lost:	22

Hebburn ; whereby 23 persons were killed. The aggregate ventilation of this colliery, whose downcast and upcast pits were each 12 feet diameter, was upwards of 70,000 cubic feet or air per minute, which was six times split ; and the quantum of air allotted to the workings where the explosion occurred was not much more than 4,000. There was need of all the places being bratticed, with doors at the board ends, the seam being 5.5 feet in height ; whilst the men worked with the safety lamps, but were permitted to open them for the purpose of blasting the coal. The principal stoppings were all well constructed and stowed ; and the air was no naturally governed by regulating stoppings, that not single door was employed in the rolleyways, some of which were 2,000 yards in length. A single board, 37 yards long, becoming foul from the neglect of a door (two of which were kept by one boy) is supposed to have produced the disaster ; the greater part of the men being killed by the after-damp, occasioned by the blowing away of a pair of doors, at the distance of 220 yards, which carried the ventilating current forward, rather than by the quantity of fire.

Source:

1853 Mines Inspectors Report

See also: N1852-01, and N1852-03

	Barnfather, John, aged 19, single
	Batey, George, aged 30, left a wife and 3 children
	Brooksbank, Allan, aged 26, married a widow 3 months ago, with 3 children. She has been 4 times married and has lost 3 of her husbands to explosions
	Coal, James, aged 36
	Deans, William, aged 37, left a wife and 3 children
	English, James, aged 12
	Gascoigne, John, aged 31, single
	Greenwell, John, aged 39, left a wife and 3 children
	Hall, George, aged 27, left a wife and 3 children
	Johnson, Edward, aged 18, single
	Orr, Joseph, aged 35, left a wife and 3 children
	Parson, James, aged 22, left a wife and 1 child
	Pattison, George, aged 22, single
	Peel, John, aged 66, left a wife
	Phillips, Silas, aged 23, Deputy, left a wife and 2 children
	Piggsford, John, aged 25, single
	Richardson, Thomas, aged 26, left a wife and 2 children
	Scott, William, aged 27, left a wife and 3 children
	Smith, John, aged 33, left a wife and 4 children
	Wardle, Michael, aged 10
	Wardle, Samuel, aged 18, single
	Wear, William, aged 32, left a wife and 4 children
	All names found
	Youngest: 10 years old ; Oldest: 66 ; Average: 28

07 May 1852

Colliery Explosion (The Times)

 

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