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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	6th December 1857
Colliery:	Staincliffe
Company:	Kaye's Executors
Cause:	Explosion of firedamp
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

Accident No. 43 in the Tabular List.

Explosion of firedamp at Staincliffe Colliery, near Dewsbury.

The deceased miner and his son were sent by the under-viewer (James Lockwood) to work with naked lights in a bank adjoining to old hollows, from which inflammable gas had been flowing for a fortnight previously.

On arriving at the spot, the father found firedamp prevailing to a dangerous extent ; and having told his boy to remove the candles into the fresh air, he commenced "fanning" out the gas with a shovel, and thus drove it towards the lights, when it ignited and burnt the man so severely as to cause his death.

The under-viewer knew that firedamp had twice been kindled in the same bank during the preceding week ; that the airways thereabout were exceedingly contracted ; that there was a deficiency of air in the face; that the ventilating furnace had been inoperative for two nights and a day immediately prior to the explosion ; that the place had not been examined on the fatal morning ; and yet he neglected to introduce safety-lamps.

At the inquest, the jury decided that the burning was "accidental," although the coroner stated that the evidence justified a verdict of "manslaughter."

The investigation having disclosed so much carelessness and mismanagement, I received authority to prosecute the under-viewer before the Dewsbury magistrates, for not providing sufficient ventilation ; for permitting the furnace to be left so long unattended to ; for leaving unexamined the working banks ; for not exhibiting danger signals at the entrance to fiery places ; for not using safety-lamps where gas was known to exist ; for not keeping the airways properly open and of the prescribed size ; for having single doors instead of double ones; and for carrying on the colliery without a map of the underground works.

The defendant, pleaded that he had not time to fulfil his various duties, and that he received only fifty-two guineas per annum for his services; but the bench, not recognizing the validity of such excuses where human life was imperilled, mulcted the under-viewer in the sum of £19 and costs, or, in default of payment, he was to be imprisoned fourteen weeks.

The magistrates further declared that the narrow and pernicious parsimony practised by the owners of the mine, was highly censurable ; and deservedly exposed them to legal proceedings (under Lord Campbell's Act) for the recovery of pecuniary damages. At the same court, the banksman of the pit was also fined for having habitually violated one of the special rules, which forbade him to let the men and boys descend before the underground works had been examined.

Source: 1857 Mines Inspectors Report, by Charles Morton, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 161

	Gledhill, John, Explosion of firedamp
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