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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	21st November 1930
Colliery:	Brandon
Company:	Strakers and Love Ltd.
Cause:	Explosion of firedamp
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

At 5 p.m. on November 21st, two coal hewers J. Rutter and J. W. Carter, were working at the face of a heading in the Harvey Seam at Brandon Colliery, Durham, when an explosion of fire damp took place, injuring both men.

The Harvey Seam was won by cross measure drifts from the Three Quarter Seam at a point 1,615 yards from the downcast shaft. The seam, 21in. thick, was won in panels, afterwards extracted by longwall machine cut faces. A pair of winning headings were driven up to a 16ft. rise fault beyond which coal had not previously been worked except to prove the throw. A few weeks prior to the accident the management decided to work the coal beyond the fault. With this object in view a drift rising 4in. to the yard was driven up to and through the hitch leader at a point 8 feet below the seam, which was proved by driving almost vertically upwards and at the time of the accident the face was as shown in Fig. 3.

At 3.0 a.m., two hours before the accident, the deputy, N. Richardson, made his statutory inspection with a locked flame safety lamp and reported no inflammable gas.

The workmen, carrying one flame safety lamp and two open lights, left the deputy at the meeting station. Before reaching the working face one of the workmen stumbled and extinguished the flame safety lamp. No steps were taken to have the lamp relighted and according to the evidence of the men it was hung up about 7 yards back from the working face. Work was started about 3.45 a.m. and was continued for about an hour. Rutter was hewing at the face by the light of an acetylene lamp. Suddenly there was a report and a flash of flame which extinguished the naked lights and seriously burned both men. Rutter subsequently died from his injuries.

There was no indication of violence following the explosion and no coking of coal dust.

The deputy examined the face of the heading about 5 minutes after the accident and was unable to detect the presence of firedamp with his flame safety lamp. A subsequent examination made by the Undermanager a few hours later showed there was a trace of gas present in the air at the top of the cavity.

When the accident was investigated the following day by one of H.M. Inspectors of Mines, firedamp could not be detected by means of a flame safety lamp but two air samples collected at the face of the heading showed 0.69 per cent, and 0.71 per cent. fire damp respectively. A sample collected in the return airway 50 yards from the last working place in the district showed 0.25 per cent. firedamp in the general body of the air current. Apart from the heading in question the ventilation was satisfactory.

There can be no doubt that the accumulation of firedamp was due to an absence of brattice cloth or other means of conducting the air current into the face. The heading in question was 21 yards in advance of the last stenton. Section 29 (1) of the Coal Mines Act, 1911, requires an adequate amount of ventilation to be constantly produced in every mine to dilute and render harmless inflammable and noxious gases to such an extent that all workings in the mine shall be in a fit state for working and passing therein.

It is said that firedamp. had not previously been encountered in this seam for 16 years. Probably this fact tended to make officials somewhat careless as regards the coursing of ventilation. There was no evidence that the deputy failed to make a proper examination prior to the accident. If the workmen had taken the elementary precaution of having the flame safety lamp relighted, and had used it the accident would probably have been avoided.

After the accident safety lamps were introduced throughout the seam.

Source:

1930 Mines Inspectors Report

	Rutter, John (died: 27 Nov 1930) , aged 36, Coal Puncher, gas explosion
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