Gunpowder Explosion 1859

Reported on the Durham Mining Museum site,

A terrible accident occurred on Monday morning in the house of a "butty collier" of Harriseahead, named Booth. This man had to keep in his cottage the powder required in the adjacent mine, and serve it out as it was wanted. It appears that on Monday morning Booth was taking some powder out of a cask in his kitchen, where the cask had been brought, when a spark from the fire flew across the room and alighted in the cask.
In a moment the house was a perfect wreck. Booth himself, being close to the barrel, was terribly injured by the shock and dreadfully burnt, and now lies in a precarious state. His wife escaped without injury; but one of his children, who was lying on a sofa in the same room, was very badly burnt about the face.

November 5th, 1859.