| Date: | 1920 |
| Colliery: | Quarry Drift |
| Company: | |
| Cause: | By explosives |
| Lives Lost: | 1 |
| Category: | |
At Quarry Drift Colliery, Co. Durham, a deputy took inbye to his kist a canister containing about 5 lbs. of Samsonite explosive and a box of detonators. He sent a shift of men to their working places and they had not proceeded more than 50 yards when they heard a loud explosion. On returning they found the deputy lying dead with both hands blown off. He had apparently taken 3 lbs. of explosive out of the canister, and it is assumed he was preparing primers by cutting a cartridge with a pocket knife, or rolling the cartridges in his hand in order to soften them. The pocket knife was never found, and the detonators were intact in a locked box.
| Source: | 1920 Mines Inspectors Report |
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