History of coal miners inventiveness in clothing their families. Mining has always been dangerous, because of methane gas explosions, roof cave-ins, and the difficulty of mines rescue. The worst single disaster in British coal mining history was at Senghenydd in the South Wales coalfield. On the morning of 14 October 1913 an explosion and subsequent fire killed 436 men and boys. It followed a series of many extensive Mining accidents such as The Oaks explosion of 1866 and the Hartley Colliery Disaster of 1862. Most of the explosions were caused by firedamp ignitions followed by coal dust explosions. Deaths were mainly caused by carbon
Merrimack Valley gas explosions fires were reported over a very short period of time in the towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover beginning about 4:15pm (EDT). Through the evening emergency crews responded to between 40 and 80 fires. At one time, as many as 18 fires were burning at once, and Andover officials struck a maximum 10-alarm response. Andover's fire chief described "billows of smoke coming from Lawrence behind me, I could see plumes of smoke in front of me within the town of Andover, it just looked like an absolute war zone." A Lawrence resident described finding his boiler on fire after