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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	33
Died:	27th Apr 1896
Accident:	27th Apr 1896
Year Born:	abt. 1863
Colliery:	Swalwell
Company:	G. R. Ramsay
Occupation:	Hewer
Notes:	Explosion of gas [Inspection made & inquest attended]
Buried:	[not known]
Category:	Explosions of fire damp or coal dust

The second fatal explosion, resulting in the death of one man, and injury to another, occurred in the same seam, the Five Quarter, at the adjoining Swalwell Colliery, on the 27th April. The two men were sent into an old bord to take down the clay which separates the top coal 8 inches thick, and the bottom coal 2 feet 8 inches thick, the latter only having been removed. After working some little time, the deceased suggested that they might fill up some of the clay which had fallen a few yards in advance of them, and he went on the top of it with his candle, when a small quantity of gas, lodging in the hole above, ignited at the light. Being in a confined space, he was unable to get away from the flames, and was severely burnt. The deputy stated that he had examined the place with a safety lamp on his morning round, and was in again with a naked light immediately before the men commenced work, and on both occasions found it clear of gas, but it is difficult to believe that such could have been the case, and it is extremely likely that, owing to the freedom of the seam from fire-damp, his examination was of too cursory a nature to enable him to detect its presence. Even after the serious results of the accident, it was the intention of the owner to continue the use of open lights, and as soon as this came to my knowledge, I at once wired him that locked safety lamps must be used, and this I confirmed by letter. A few lamps were procured, but, notwithstanding the warning and the fact that fire-damp had been seen in another part of the same seam, naked lights were generally used, with the result that a second slight explosion occurred on the 22nd September. With your permission, I instituted proceedings against the owner and manager for a breach of General Rule 8, section 49 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, in that they failed to use locked safety lamps in a place in which there was likely to be any such quantity of inflammable gas, as to render the use of naked lights dangerous, and in both cases a conviction ensued.

• 1896 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8450), Newcastle District (No. 3) by J. L. Hedley, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 20, Accident Number: 239 Where to find this report
• 1896 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8450), Newcastle District (No. 3) by J. L. Hedley, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 8 Where to find this report

Email	Researcher	Date	Interest
	Thomas Brown	22 Sep 2011	My great Grandfather Thomas Hindmore was the other man, supposedly injured. However he died of his burns on the 7 May and was not registgered as a fatality

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