PORTLAND No.5 Pit. Ayrshire. 17th August 1900.

The colliery was the property of The Portland Colliery Company, Limited. The managing director was Mr. Allan Gilmour with Mr. Daniel Gilmour as the manager of the colliery. The No.5 or Nursery Pit was the downcast shaft and No.4 or Wellington Pit, which was 1,000 yards away, was the upcast shaft. The main coal seam in which the explosion occurred was 7 feet thick and was worked by the “stoop and room” method. The ventilating current came down the No.5 Pit and down the Crosscut Dook and was conducted by screens and bratticing to within 20 yards of the stopping.

Owing to a fire cause by spontaneous combustion, some years before, the Hurlford section was shut off by building stoppings in each of the two mines. One of these stoppings was in the Dook Mine and about a month before the explosion the old workings were tapped and firedamp given off. After this a working place was driven where John Higgins jnr. and Boyd Crummock were working with safety lamps and the working place ventilated by brattice.

It was decided to open up a section in the Dook Mine and on the 17th. August, David Clark and John Todd were sent by the undermanager to blast out the stopping by Nobel’s blasting gelatine. The stopping consisted of a brick wall, 30 inches thick and built with cement. At about 12.30 p.m., after having drilled and charged two shot holes and lit the fuses, the men retired. First one and then the other shot fired and the second was immediately followed by an explosion of firedamp which injured Alexander Dunlop who was working with James Brown. There were 12 men in this section and they retired up the Crosscut Dook. Four men went out to the pit bottom and others remained in the intake airway. While they were waiting there for the undermanager, the fireman and two miners took safety lamps and went back to get their clothes but they encountered firedamp and had to retire.

When Johnstone, the undermanager arrived, he went with the fireman and the two miners to explore the Crosscut Dook but they had put out one of the lamps and they retired. They had got nearly to the top of the dook when a second explosion occurred. About three-quarters of an hour afterwards the men were found unconscious by the manager and others about 260 yards from the No.5 shaft. The undermanager was found lying in recess with a safety lamp and his naked lamp beside him. The other safety lamp was found some distance from the pit bottom. Turnbull’s safety lamp was found where he appeared to have been at the time of the first explosion.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • Andrew Johnstone, aged 35 years, undermanager,
  • James Turnbull aged 41 years, fireman,
  • John Gemmell aged 48 years, miner,
  • John Gemmell aged 23 years miner,
  • Boyd Crummock aged 21 years, miner,
  • John Todd jnr., aged 34 years, oncost worker.

On examining the stopping after the explosion, all had been blown down and there was no indication of where they had been placed. It was found that the shots had made an opening four feet wide by two and three quarter’s feet high right through. There seemed to be no doubt that the first explosion was caused by the firing of the shots igniting firedamp on the lower side of the stopping. Mr. Ronaldson went on to say:

About an hour elapsed before the second explosion but I have been unable to ascertain what the cause of it was. It seems evident that a body of firedamp accumulated behind the stopping, on being released by the shots, worked its way upwards until it came into contact with a naked light, and the explosion was thus initiated was carried on and intensified by coal dust as these workings are both dry and dusty. There was evidence that the force of the blast radiated from a point and there was a possibility that the first explosion set fire to some timbering or brattice cloth which kept burning until the body of firedamp reached it and became ignited.

The inquiry brought to light several contraventions of the regulations and proceedings were taken against the manager for being responsible for these. After the evidence was heard he was convicted on each case and fined £15.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report 1900. Mr. Ronaldson.
Colliery Guardian, 24th August 1900, P.381.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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