Sheffield Telegraph, January 7, 1887
Suffocated by Gas at Denaby Main Colliery.
The adjourned inquest on the body of Edmund Wigley, who died on 27 December from the effects of injuries received whilst working in Denaby Main Colliery, was held yesterday afternoon at the Masons Arms Inn, Doncaster Road, Mexborough, before Mr Dossy Wightman.
Jonathan Rogers, a deputy, said at the time of the accident deceased and two others were engaged in getting a piece of coal from under a bar for the purpose of setting a long prop in its place. A cloud of stones and sand fell on and about where deceased fell, but not in sufficient quantities to kill him. When got out of the hole he was digging , deceased complained of his head, and then commenced to vomit most violently, keeping it up for fully 10 minutes. He vomited everything.
Afterwards they found some fire where the accident occurred. It was in trying to erect an archway to stop the progress of the fire that the accident happened. When he had held the lamp up to the roof previous to the accident. The light had burnt dull, and this indicated to his mind that there was some “heat” about.
By the inspector: he saw a lamp put out by the same sort of “heat” when the Inspector was at the pit last week. He thought that the “heat” made the diseased vomit.
The inspector stated that the men called all sorts of things “heat,” and that “heat” would be carbonic oxide, which would get in the diseased lungs and cause vomiting.
The coroner read a certificate from Dr Sykes, giving it as his opinion that the man died from an inhalation of carbonic oxide, and the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.
It was stated during the enquiry that some parts of the pithad been on fire during the last 12 years, and had made great encroachments upon the workings.