I coudn't resist having a look at the Hexham Herald and there's an even longer article there, including much more detail of the actual circumstances leading up to the explosion; I thought you'd be interested to read that part of the article:
Hexham Herald, 2nd June 1877.
Maddison states that he and William Little were the first to enter the mine shortly after 6 o’clock in the morning. It was his (Maddison’s) duty to go forward into ‘the rise’ and examine the workings in order to ascertain whether or not they were clear of gas before the men went into work. On the morning in question he went in advance of the men into the rise as he had been previously in the habit of doing. He blew out his candle as soon as he had 'fettled’ his Davy lamp and went forward through the canvas erected for the purpose of splitting the air, up to the last holing. It was difficult to see the road he was climbing with the scant light of the Davy lamp, and one of the men said “Will you have a candle handed up”. As there was a good current of air, and he did not suspect the presence of explosive gas, never having known gas to accumulate in that part of the workings before, he consented to have a lighted candle handed up. As soon as the lighted candle was handed up, by one of the men, a number of whom were sitting below, not four feet from the place where he was standing, the gas exploded, and he was knocked down and rendered insensible. He soon recovered consciousness, and crawled along the level to the shaft in the dark, not daring to strike a light till near the shaft foot. Wm Little, one of the miners most severely injured, arrived at the bottom of the shaft in company with George Craft, another of the miners who had gone down shortly after the explosion took place, about the same time as he did. Oil was freely poured over the burns sustained by the unfortunate miners, and their wounds were covered up to protect them from the action of the air previous to their being brought up the shaft. A trap door was wrenched away and other damage has been done to the mine.
