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Full Details

Surname
RUSSELL
Forename
Robert
Day
03
Month
03
Year
1925
Age
35
Occupation
Fireman
Mine/Quarry Name
Lindsay
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Fife Coal Co. Ltd
Location
Kelty
County
Fifeshire
Details of Event
3 March 1925: Fatality At Kelty – Stone Falls on Fireman – Robert Russell, 35, a colliery fireman, was fatally injured in an accident in the Fife Coal Company's Lindsay Pit at Kelty on Tuesday afternoon. He was in the act of setting a prop in a gap which he had decided to fill up with refuse, when a stone weighing half a ton fell upon him. He was terribly injured and died in a few minutes. Deceased who lived in Mossgreen Street, Kelty was well known throughout the district as a singer and was to have taken the tenor solos in “Daniel” on Sunday night when the choir of Moray U.F. Church of which he was a member, were to sing that religious work. He was a member of Kelty Choral Union, and of the Underground Fireman's Association of Kelty District. He leaves a widow and child. [Dunfermline Journal 7 March 1925] Information from the Mines Inspector's Report - 1925: Roof fall At Lindsay Colliery, Fife, a fireman and an oversman were inspecting a longwall face where a level was just cutting across a rising road. The place had been standing idle for four days waiting to be brushed and the packs were a long way back from the face. They had set two props to make the place more secure when a large flat stone knocked out these two and another prop, fatally injuring the fireman. This accident might have been avoided if the place had not been kept standing for four days with a great area of exposed and unsupported roof. It is bad for the roof of any longwall place to stand and, when an excessive area is not properly supported there should be no delay in sending brushers to get the buildings put up.