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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	24th June 1909
Colliery:	Raisby Hill, Limestone quarry
Company:	Raisby Hill Limestone Company
Cause:	By blasting
Lives Lost:	1
Category:	Inside the Quarries :: By Blasting

One accident occurred under this heading [By Blasting] during the year. It happened at Raisby Hill Quarry, belonging to Messrs. The Raisby Hill Limestone Co., on 24th June, and resulted in the death of a quarryman.

A hole six feet deep had been "cracked" on the 23rd June. The quarryman on the following day, not being satisfied that the cracking charge of the previous day had expanded the bottom of the hole sufficiently, introduced another cracking charge into the hole. He waited, according to his own statement, ten minutes after the charge exploded before he began to pour a full charge of loose powder into the hole. He had, according to his own statement, put his scraper and his stemmer into the hole prior to pouring in the gunpowder, and both were cool when withdrawn. Whilst he was pouring in the gunpowder the hole exploded, igniting the powder in the canister and bursting it open. No one saw what the man was doing, but the quarry foreman said that, judging from the report made by the explosion, he thought that the cracking charge exploded and then the gunpowder. If this were so, then the cracking charge had failed to explode in the first instance. It is more probable that there had been a smouldering fuse in the hole, and that this had ignited the powder which was being poured in. Not only was the Special Rule requiring a longer interval between inserting the cracking charge and the gunpowder disregarded, but the man was evidently pouring the gunpowder into the hole direct from the canister ; this was contrary to the bye-laws existing in the quarry, small "tots" having been provided for this special purpose.

Source:

1909 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 5177) Where to find this report

	Mann, Richard, aged 40, Quarryman, Burnt by an explosion of gunpowder when pouring it into a hole which he had "cracked" some few minutes previously
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