Hill of Beath Colliery Fire – Fife – 1901

HILL OF BEATH. Fife, Fifeshire. 15th. February, 1901.

The colliery was the property of The Fife Coal Company, Limited and seven lives were lost as a result of an underground fire. The Lochgelly Splint and the Parrot Seams in Fife were subject to spontaneous combustion and a fire from this cause in the East section of the working led to the deaths. The top 6 feet of the seam was composed of coal and Blaes and was not worked, there was then 5 feet of the Lochgelly Splint coal, 22.5 feet of Blaes and 3.5 feet of bottom coal, the Lochgelly Parrot. The seam was worked by longwall in two “carries” The bottom coal was worked first and the top coal was then taken out from the same roads. The seam was inclined at about 1 in 7.

The East Section was separated from the other sections of the colliery by a fault, across which there were only two roads, the intake which was the haulage road and the return way. The ventilating current along the intake measured before the accident was 9,625 cubic feet per minute and passed in one current round the faces. It was stated that there was little loss of air and most of the current reached the faces. The seam was free from firedamp and coal dust and naked lights were used throughout the mine.

In July 1900, a fire broke out in the section and the miners were removed nearer the shaft. In September, stoppings were built in both the intake and the return airways to isolate it. These consisted of two rough walls of stone, two feet thick and two feet apart. The space was packed with redd and the outer walls clayed over. These appeared to have damped the fire to some extent.

In December 1901, another fire, or possibly an extension of the first, broke out there was the smell of a fire in the section and on the 15th, the oversman, Robert Birrell, reported this to the manager, Mr. Richardson, who gave orders to Birrell and Alexander Naysmith, the fireman of the section to make an examination of the stoppings, and try to locate the source of the smell.

After work had stopped about 2 p.m., Birrell and Naysmith made their examination and the appeared to have travelled to the shaft by the return airway. When they did not return to the surface, the alarm was raised and a search party consisting of W.E. Richardson, the manager, James Grandison, James Reid, Alexander Carr, Patrick Manson McRoberts, all miners and James McFarlane, a rope splicer descended the shaft about 4 p.m. and went into the section by way of the intake airway. They passed the stopping and waited a little while in the air current. Richardson stated at the inquiry that there was no consultation about the danger from gases, but it was suggested that the halt and see how their breathing was affected. They stopped for a few minutes and had no difficulty breathing and started to travel out along the return airway. Richardson had gone about 135 yards when he was affected by gasses and at once turned around and told the others to go back. He struggled back and managed to get into fresh air beyond the gasses when he lost conciseness. Carr, McRoberts, Rennie and McFarlane did not get clear of the gas and were lost. Grandison managed to retrace his steps to safety.

When the search party did not return, other men went down and a member of one of these, Martin Rennie, a miner, was overcome and died but he does not appear on the official list in the appendix to the Report.

Those who died were:

• Robert Birrell aged 33 years, oversman,
• Andrew Naysmyth aged 34 years, fireman,
• Alexander Carr aged 43 years, oncostman,
• Patrick McRoberts aged 30 years, oncostman,
• James McFarlane aged 44 years, oncostman,
• Martin McTearn aged 36 years, oncostman,
• James Reid aged 35 years, miner.

The oversman and the fireman were not instructed to inspect the return airway and may have decided to travel to the shaft by the shortest route and, because there was less difficulty in carrying a light. They probably had no thought of danger although a little knowledge of the probability of carbon monoxide, (carbonic gas) being present might have deterred them

Mr. Rowan, the General Manager of the West Section of the Fife Coal Company’s Collieries, arrived at the colliery and went down with two canaries and after consultation with Mr. Riddell, manager of the Company’s Cowdenbeath Colliery, and they decided to reverse the air current to get at the bodies. This was accomplished and the bodies of Birrell and Naysmith were the first to be recovered. They were 20 yards apart and about two-thirds of the distance to the shaft by the return airway. The bodies of the rescuers were found near the face. The last was recovered at 2.30 p.m. on the 16th, when it was decided to isolate the district by building stoppings in the intake and return airways near the drawing shaft.

The stoppings were built the same night and the Inspector, Mr. Atkinson, arrived at the colliery the next day. It was soon evident that air was reaching the fire and that the products of combustion were entering the current of air as the stoppings were not sufficiently airtight.

Mr. Atkinson commented:

The accident clearly indicates that great care is necessary in entering airways into which gas from an underground fire is finding an entrance. the only reliable precaution at present is the use of mice or birds as indicators for the purity of the air. The blood of small animals is more quickly saturated by the carbonic oxide and it collapses before a man is affected, and so allows some time to retreat.

 Mr. Rowan, when he first went in by the intake and got past the stoppings, found the canaries affected when he himself felt no ill-affects and while the air was being reversed. The canaries were made use of by the leading man, and they dropped motionless in their cages on several occasions when carried forward.

 Before this fire and fires in adjoining pits, Mr. Rowan made use of palladium chloride as a test for carbonic oxide and found in several occasions, that the gases from a fire blackened the blotting paper on which the solution was poured immediately before the test was made but the had not previously used birds.

 Since the accident, mice had been regularly used for testing in other sections of the collieries troubled by fires and with satisfactory results.

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report 1901. Mr. J.B. Atkinson.

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