Report on the causes of, and circumstances attending, the Explosion which occurred at Barnburgh Main Colliery, Barnburgh, in the County of York, on 26th June, 1957.

In accordance with your direction, given in pursuance of Section 121 of the Mines and Quarries Act, 1954, I beg to submit my report on the causes of, and circumstances attending, the explosion which occurred at Barnburgh Main colliery, Barnburgh, in the County of York, at 3.0 p.m. on 26th June, 1957, when six persons were fatally injured and 14 others sustained immediately reportable injuries.

On 17th September, 1957, Mr. A. P. Lockwood, H.M. Coroner for the Rotherham Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, sitting with a jury, held an adjourned Inquest on the bodies of five men who were injured in the explosion and who subsequently died within his ward. In each case the verdict was :— "Deceased was by misadventure burned on 26th June, 1957, underground in the North West 1 District of the Newhill seam at Barnburgh Main colliery, Barnburgh, in the West Riding of the County of York when he was involved in an explosion of firedamp; that the explosion followed immediately after a shot was fired in the back-ripping of the main gate bringing down a large stone which fell on a power cable with the result that the cable was damaged and a flash occurred at the damaged point; that the said flash is the only discoverable cause for an ignition of firedamp; that the only discoverable source of an emission of firedamp was from a break in the roof of the main gate some 73 yards inbye from the flash."

The jury recommended to the Minister of Power that the regulations should be forthwith altered so as to make it compulsory for protection of a rigid nature to be afforded to any power cable liable to damage in shot firing.

A second Inquest was held on 24th September, 1957, by Mr. N. S. Robson, H.M. Coroner for the Borough of Rotherham, on the body of the one man who died within his ward. The verdict was death from misadventure. The jury recommended that definite instructions and regulations should be laid down regarding the type of protection for the cable, and that more extensive examinations for gas should be made immediately before shot firing in the immediate vicinity.

The Inquests were thorough and exhaustive and every facility was given for calling and examining witnesses. I would like here to express my appreciation and thanks to the Coroners for their courtesy.