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Hamstead Colliery Fire

Astonian

gone but not forgotten
Hamstead Colliery was the scene of a disaster in March 1908.
It is thougnt a miner droped a lighted Candle into a box of Candles and this set
Fire to the wooden pit props, 8,000 onlookers appeared at the scene as rescuers got to work
They found the remains of 25 Men and 30 pit ponies,
The birmingham Daily Mail opened a relief fund for the bereaved families

On 26 August1878 there was a major fire at a sweet shop in Digbeth
The escape ladder was unusable and the shop owner threw her baby
But the jumping sheets was trampled on by a large Crowd of onlookers
And the baby later died. She herself jumped to her Death
Astonian,,,,,,
 
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Hamstead Colliery was the scene of a disaster in March 1908.
It is thougnt a miner droped a lighted Candel into a box of Candels and this set
Fire to the wooden pitt props, 8,000 onlookers appeared at the scene as rescuers got to work
They found the remains of 25 Men and 30 pitt ponies,
The birmingham Daily Mail opened a relief fund for the bereaved families

On 26 August1878 there was a major fire zt a sweet shop in Digbeth
The escape ladder was unusable and the shop owner threw her baby
But the jumping sheets was trampled on by a large Crowd of onlookers
And the baby later died. She herself jumped to her Death
Astonian,,,,,,

August 1908..."An official report has been issued on the causes and circumstances of the underground fire... in connection with which 25 men lost their lives.

Inflammable gas being rarely found in the collieries of South Staffordshire, candles were used by workmen throughout the mine and, in which Mr Redmayne's opinion, the disaster was caused by the practice occasionally followed by the workingmen of separating the bundles of candles by burning the string which bound them.

The whole system, or rather lack of system, of giving the candles at the bottom of the shaft was most unfortunate and reprehensible. There was evidence that the fire originated underneath the candle box if they had been ready means of extinguishing the fire the disaster would've been prevented. It seemed to him that the candle box should be kept at the surface..."
 
Inflammable gas being rarely found in the collieries of South Staffordshire, candles were used by workmen throughout the mine and, in which Mr Redmayne's opinion, the disaster was caused by the practice occasionally followed by the workingmen of separating the bundles of candles by burning the string which bound them.
Inflammable gas being rarely found in the collieries of South Staffordshire, candles were usedby workmen throughout the mine and, in which Mr Redmayne's opinion, the disaster wascaused by the practice occasionally followed by the workingmen of separating the bundles ofcandles by burning the string which bound them.



In those days people understood inflammable to mean flammable. Even in the early seventies when I worked for Shell mex and BP we had the inflammable liquid diamond stuck on the cargo tanks, it wasn't until The Hazchem label was introduced that people realised that inflammable meant unable to burn.
 
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