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Full Details

Surname
PHOENIX
Forename
Oswald
Day
12
Month
06
Year
1909
Age
26
Occupation
Loader
Mine/Quarry Name
Jamage
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
John Wedgwood (Representatives of the late)
Location
Talke
County
Staffordshire
Details of Event
This accident was caused by boring into an unexploded charge of Albionite (9ozs.) in a shot hole in a sinking pit. The shot was one of five which were connected up in series and fired electrically by a low tension battery near the end of the day shift. On examination it was found that the middle shot had missed. A second charge was then placed in the same hole on the top of the original stemming and was exploded separately. The work done by this second charge caused the chargeman on the shift to consider that both charges had gone. The work of cleaning up was preceded with for the remainder of the shift and was continued by the next shift, when after about 1.5 hours, the sump was ready for boring again. Phoenix, on instructions from Jones, commenced to bore in the socket of the original missed shot when almost immediately an explosion occurred, killing the former on the spot and causing injuries to Jones, from which he died on the 23rd instant. The practice of boring in sockets left by previous shots is to be condemned, for there is No.guarantee that the whole of a charge has been exploded. The practice was afterwards discontinued in this sinking. 2 killed.