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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	22nd January 1906
Colliery:	Elemore
Company:	Hetton Coal Co., Ltd.
Cause:	Fall of stone
Lives Lost:	2
Category:

On January 22nd, two brothers were hewing in a loose-end place in the Main Coal seam at Elemore Colliery, belonging to Messrs. The Hetton Coal Co.. Limited. The lift was 18 feet wide and well timbered with chocks and pairs of gears. The roof was post stone. The deputy had set a prop and plank and was just leaving the place when a very heavy fall of roof occurred, burying the two brothers and knocking him down. At the inquest the deputy gave evidence to the effect that the roof was perfectly quiet whilst he was in the place and so safe that he made the remark that he would have gone to sleep in it, so confident was he that there was no danger. The fall appeared to have come down in one mass, measuring 18-20 feet long x 12 feet wide x 14-15 feet thick. As it happened one of the men working in this place during the foreshift — the fall took place about 1¾ hours after he had left — was a local inspector, i.e., one of the men appointed by his fellows to make inspections under General Rule 38, and he gave evidence at the inquest to the effect that, whilst he was at work in the place and when he left, it was very pleasant and there was nothing to suggest danger from a fall. He thought the place was sufficiently timbered — in fact, that more could not have been set. This is a case which, apparently, no human foresight could have prevented.

Source:

1906 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 3449), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 15 Where to find this report

	Gaffney, John, aged 27, Hewer, They were killed by a heavy fall of stone — 8 or 9 yards wide x 12 feet thick — which came away immediately at the coal face, and which no ordinary timbering would have prevented, brother of Thomas
	Gaffney, Thomas, aged 22, Hewer, They were killed by a heavy fall of stone — 8 or 9 yards wide x 12 feet thick — which came away immediately at the coal face, and which no ordinary timbering would have prevented, brother of John
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27 Jan 1906

Elemore Pit Fatality (Whitehaven Advertiser)

 

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