Garscube 13 December 1853

Fatal accident at Garscube Collliery - On Tuesday night the fireman in charge of the pit had gone down early and was in the act of proceeding with a naked lamp towards the place where his Davy lamp was hanging when the light ignited fire damp and an explosion immediately took place. At this time there were eight or nine men in the pit about to resume work.. They were all pretty close to the seat of the explosion and the fireman, whose name is McDead, and another man whose name we have not ascertained were killed on the spot; another man has died since from the effects of the injuries he received, and all the others are seriously, and some of them , it is feared fatally injured. A number of them have been removed to the Infirmary. Although the unhappy occurrence was the result of venturing so far into the pit with a naked light, still the act was not considered one of imprudence, as firedamp was never known to have been felt in the same place - it being situated between the bottom of the pit and an air pit - thus inducing a free current of air, and the superior of the man who ventured in with the light states, that had he been present, he would in all likelihood have acted in the same way. [Herald Dec 16th 1853]

Colliery Accident - On Tuesday morning an explosion of fire damp occurred in one of the coal-pits on the side of the Forth and Clyde Canal, near Knightswood. Nine miners were in the pit at the time of the disaster, all of whom were injured, three of them having been suffocated or burned. Two of the others are not expected to recover, and the remainder of the party are more or less hurt [Glasgow Constitutional – quoted in the Scotsman 17 December 1853]