COMMONHEAD. Airdrie, Fifeshire. 23rd. July, 1850.
On Tuesday nineteen descended to their work as usual about 6 a.m. and the fireman was with them and went forward to examine the state of the pit. There was a sudden terrific explosion which killed eighteen instantly and shattered the pit. Only one man escaped and he was standing at the pit bottom and threw himself down to allow the firestorm to pass. All the victims were charred and disfigured and all the precautions against firedamp had been neglected since the previous Saturday.
The disaster was made a subject of a law case and the sole survivor gave the following evidence:
The fireman, each morning with a safety lamp, went round the workings and told the men where there was fire by writing on a shovel. When we saw the shovel we left our naked lights and went “Waffed” the fire out without coats we then took out lamps we made it quite clear by “waffing” it. I have had to do this twice or thrice in a day, and it would take me about ten minutes. None of the miners had safety lamps. Some of the places were so foul that “waffing” would not do. The (ventilating) fire was not kept burning night and day, as it should have been. There was no person down the pit from Saturday till the Tuesday morning, the day of the accident. I went down as usual and saw my brother, who was the fireman, go in with a Davy lamp. At the ending, I heard my brother say, there was fire, and that my place was filled. He went to another place, and I observed that it fired the lamp. The explosions took place instantly, but not at his lamp.
James and John Seddon were charged at Glasgow County Court with culpable homicide.
REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol. 2. p.134.
Mining Journal Vol. xx, p.375.
Dunn’s. Winning and Working. 1852. p.303.
Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.
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