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Share · 04-06-2010, 05:48 AM

25 dead. 4 missing.

Montcoal, West Virginia (CNN) -- The death toll from the massive explosion at a sprawling coal mine in West Virginia rose to 25 early Tuesday, making it the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in 25 years.

Crews halted their efforts to reach four miners still unaccounted for at the Upper Big Branch Mine following the blast Monday afternoon.

Concentrations of methane and carbon monoxide inside the mine made it a safety risk for crews to proceed, said Kevin Stricklin of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration at a 2 a.m. briefing to reporters.

Officials planned to drill bore holes from the surface 1,200 feet into the mines to help ventilate it and to collect samples. However, they will first have to use bulldozers to clear a path to reach the part of the mine where they can drill.

Stricklin said he did not know how long the process would take.

"I think it's a dire situation but I do think that it is a rescue operation and it will be that way until we confirm that these four additional people are not living," he said. "I mean, there are miracles that go on."

"Basically all we have left," Stricklin said, "is hope."

Share · 04-06-2010, 06:04 AM

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This is sad and to think our governor said he put in place measures to keep this from happening. its a sad day. Sad

Share · 04-06-2010, 06:16 AM

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my heart goes out to the families, what a difficult and dangerous way to support their families. and my opinion is that profits STILL come before lives.

Recent Major Fatal Mining Incidents, United States:

- Dec. 30: 1970: 38 die in a coal explosion at Finley Coal No. 15 and 16, Hyden, Ky.

- Feb. 26, 1972: 114 die in a coal dam failure at Buffalo Mining Co., Saunders, W.Va.

- May 2, 1972: 91 die in a fire at Sunshine Mining Company in Kellogg, Idaho.

- Dec. 19, 1984: 27 die in a coal fire at Wilberg Mine, Orangeville, Utah.

- Sept. 23, 2001: 13 die in a coal explosion at No. 5 Mine, Brookwood, Ala.

- Jan. 2, 2006: 12 die in a coal explosion at Sago Mine, Buckhannon, W.Va.

- May 20, 2006: 5 die in a coal explosion at Darby Mine No. 1, Millsboro Ky.

- Aug. 6, 2007: 6 die in coal accident at Crandall Canyon Mine, Huntington, Utah

More than 100,000 coal miners have been killed in accidents in the United States since 1900, but the number of fatalities has fallen sharply in recent decades, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. As late as the 1940s it was not unusual to have more than 1,000 mining deaths a year; in 2009 there were 35 mining deaths, according the agency.

But mining remains dangerous work, as the disasters that seem to befall small Appalachian towns every few years attest. And there are persistent alarms raised about mines using antiquated safety equipment, lax enforcement and a culture that discourages safety complaints.

***Flamethrower*** · 04-06-2010, 04:55 PM

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Porter Tunnel Mine
Kocher Coal Company
Tower City, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
March 1, 1977 - 9 Killed
*****************************************************************************
LK and I knew one of the miners killed in this incident. We both live in anthracite country and coal mining is still a core industry for the area.

I hope that there are miners which will survive this ordeal and my sympathies go out to those affected by this tragic event in W. Va.

Share · 04-06-2010, 09:29 PM

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this morning some of the dead miners' families said they had not HEARD ONE WORD FROM MINE OFFICIALS! that's outrageous!! not even notice of deaths! Diablo

(CNN) -- The deaths of at least 25 workers in a West Virginia coal mine this week have turned a harsh spotlight on the safety record of the mine's owner, which has paid record fines for safety and environmental violations.

Virginia-based Massey Energy Co. has racked up millions of dollars in penalties in recent years. The Montcoal, West Virginia, mine where Monday's fatal explosion took place received 458 citations from federal inspectors in 2009, and more than 50 of those were for problems that the operators knew about but had not corrected, according to federal mine safety records.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration hit the company with nearly $900,000 in fines in 2009 and has sought more than $100,000 in the first quarter of 2010. Inspectors cited the operators more than 100 times in the first quarter of 2010, including six times for "unwarrantable failure" to correct violations.

"They had a doubling of the number of site citations from 2008 to 2009 and a doubling or a tripling of the penalties," said Davitt McAteer, who led the Mine Safety and Health Administration during the Clinton administration. "What that suggests to you is ... that there are problems here and that those problems are not being addressed."

Massey Energy has paid less than $200,000 of the penalties assessed at the Upper Big Branch South Mine in Montcoal and is challenging some of the penalties. Its CEO, Don Blankenship, told CNN that his company's facilities are "typically in better shape than others in the area or in the country."

"We would take great exception to the fact that someone would claim Massey's mines aren't generally safer than competitor coal mines," he said.

He said the company was "uncomfortable" with the number of violations reported, but said tighter enforcement has driven up the numbers of violations across the industry since the Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 men in 2006 in Tallmansville, West Virginia.

"Certainly violations are a bad indicator, but they're not a sole source for judging safety performance," Blankenship said.

Massey Energy is the fourth-largest American coal producer and the largest mine operator in central Appalachia. It churned out 38 million tons of coal in 2009, 1.2 million tons of which came from the Upper Big Branch South Mine, and reported earnings of $497 million.

Its annual corporate "social responsibility report" says that safety is its No. 1 concern and that its employees "are the best-trained, most productive, and safest miners in the world."

But McAteer said on CNN's "American Morning" that "some companies, and this appears to be one, take the approach that these violations are simply a cost of doing business -- it's cheaper for us to mine in an unsafe way or in a way that risks people's lives than it is for us to comply with the statutes, comply with the laws."

Share · 04-08-2010, 09:04 PM

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So sad.

It's horrifying knowing the oxygen will run out soon if there are survivors.

I know several people who work for Massey. It's going to be hard for them to go back in, but they have to eat.

Share · 04-09-2010, 08:06 AM

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this morning, Friday, April 9.
Naoma, West Virginia (CNN) -- Rescue crews searching for four missing miners were evacuated Friday from a West Virginia coal mine after encountering smoke.

The smoke was moving, signaling an active fire somewhere in the mine, said Kevin Stricklin of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. The situation was too dangerous for the rescuers to remain, he said.

Before their retreat, the rescue crew found one of two airtight safety chambers where the miners might have taken shelter after Monday's explosion, Stricklin said. The chamber had not been deployed, he said.

Rescuers now intend to drill more boreholes into the Upper Big Branch coal mine and pump nitrogen into the burning area to deprive the fire of oxygen.

The hope, though slim, is that the four missing miners were able to survive by entering one of the chambers, which were stocked with enough food, water and air to keep 15 miners alive for four days.

**LKTraz** · 04-10-2010, 08:12 AM

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Considering the amount of time that's elapsed since the methane explosion I think that this is now a body recovery operation.

If those miners 4 had survived the initial blast it's doubtful that they are still alive even if they did get to one of the rescue chambers.

Not to pick on W.Va. mining operations as opposed to Pa. but, look at the record of mining incidents. It appears that the companies operating in W.Va. are negligent when it comes to following the safety rules. I have many friends who run "bootleg" mining operations here and even these little "mom and pop" mines are run quite safely. Inspectors are constantly showing up on site and nitpicking about POTENTIAL safety issues.

I take it from our local miners that the W.Va. operations are not very good paying jobs as opposed to what you could earn in one of the mines in this area.

We had a miner killed in an explosion a few years ago but it was due to the fact that he was slow in responding to the call to clear out. The blast didn't kill him because it was much deeper in the mine than his location but a large slab fell on him when he was exiting. Had he beat feet when the alert happened he would have been outside the shaft when the it went boom.

Methane level detectors are not all that expensive from an operational point of view and if a small operation can afford to install them then what the hell is wrong with the bigger companies?

Share · 04-10-2010, 08:14 AM

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they found the 4 remaining bodies late last night. 22 bodies are in the mine that now must be recovered.

***Twilla*** · 04-10-2010, 08:25 AM

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This is probably a stupid and insensitive question, but why wouldn't these miners move to an area with better safety practices in their mines. Are these jobs highly territorial and outsiders aren't welcome?

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