Mexborough & Swinton Times, January 27th 1912.
Gas Explosion at Cadeby
Narrow Escape By Datallers
Some what sensational rumours were circulating early on Saturday morning January 20th 1912, respecting an explosion of gas at the Cadeby Main Colliery, but fortunately the effects of the accident was of much less serious consequence than was at first supposed.
It appears that at twenty past six in the morning, four datallers were working in the South district of the mine, at a point where a `gob fire´ had been recently subdued, when one of them named John Hill, of Clifton Street, noticed a little fire on one of the supporting bars, another dataller named Gregory, dashed a bucket full of water at it, but on the same instant it ignited a small accumulation of gas in a hollow of the roof, which had been inaccessible for testing purposes. There was a flash about three feet long and an explosion with it, however but only a slight concussion.
Hill, who was standing upright near the centre of the mischief, was rather extensively burned about the head, neck and shoulders, a dataller named William Thompson, of 72 Bank Street, Mexborough, was also burned. Gregory threw himself down onto the floor, and escaped the full force of the flash and blast of the explosion, and he and the remaining dataller were but slightly burned, and were able to proceed home. Hill and Thompson however, were conveyed in the colliery ambulance to the Fullerton Hospital, where they were detained, but the doctor reports that unless complications set in they should recover rapidly.
Mr. W.H. Chambers, Managing Director of the Denaby and Cadeby Collieries, was early at the scene of the accident, the `gob fire´ which is presumed to be the cause of the accident, is practically subdued, and there remains nothing but the heat, which is gradually being driven out of the workings. At the time of the accident the temperature was a degree short of the hundred.
The affair caused a considerable sensation in the district, and on that account Mr. Chambers readily supplied an official account of the accident.