I was looking through the newspaper archives for the 'Kicking Cuddy' fire in High Street / Eastgarth Avenue mentioned in
this thread
Didn't find it but came across this which relates to this thread regarding miners storing explosives in the home. (which were also being used on the beach a few years earlier - see above)
The Journal 15th May 1914.
THE AMBLE EXPLOSION.
RESULT OF THE INQUEST AT NEWCASTLE INFIRMARY.
At Newcastle Infirmary, last night, Mr Alfred Appleby, City Coroner, resumed the inquest on Catherine Turnbull, 44, widow of a miner of Henderson Street, Amble, who died in the institution on May 8 from burns received through a tin of gunpowder exploding at her home.
William Broughton Shepherd, a miner at Radcliffe Colliery, belonging to the Broomhill Collieries Ltd, said that he lodged with the deceased until the accident occurred. He had worked at the colliery for about six years. It was the practice in the district for miners to buy their own gunpowder and make up their cartridges at home. On April 30, when leaving for the pit, he asked Mrs Turnbull to get him some powder. The same night he was informed the woman had been burned through the powder exploding but he did not know how the accident occurred.
Sergeant Smailes of the Northumberland County Constabulary, stationed in Amble, said that on April 30 he was called to the scene of the accident, and found the woman badly burned about the face, neck and arms. Two doors, four windows, the ceiling in three of the rooms and the furniture were damaged by the explosion. Mrs Turnbull said she was removing a tin of powder from a table in the kitchen to a place in the front room, where it would be safer, when a spark from the fire caused the tin of powder to explode.
A verdict of ‘Accidental death’ was returned, the jury expressing the opinion that the keeping of powder in house was a dangerous practice, and hoped it would be stopped.