Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 27 January 1912
Gas Explosion at Cadeby.
Narrow Escapes by Datallers
Somewhat sensational rumours were circulating early on Saturday morning respecting an explosion of gas at Cadeby Main, but unfortunately the effects of the accident was of much less serious consequence than at first supposed.
It appears that at twenty past six, four datallers were working in the south district of the mine at a point where a “gob fire” has but recently been 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 bucketful of water at it, but on the instant it ignited a small accumulation of gas in a hollow of the roof, which had been inaccessible for testing purposes.
There was flash about 3 feet long, and an explosion, with, however, but 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 Wm. Thompson, of 71, Bank Street, Mexborough, was also burned. Gregory threw himself down and escaped the full force of the flash, 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 Denaby Fullerton Hospital, where they were detained, but the doctor reports that unless complication set in, they will progress rapidly.
Mr. W. H. Chambers, managing director of the Denaby and Cadeby Collieries, was early on the scene of the accident. The “gob fire,” which is presumed to be the cause of the accident, is practically subdued, and there nothing but the heat which is gradually driven out of the working. 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.