The Intelligencer/Wheeling News Register
Company Says Only 1 of 13 Trapped Miners Survived
By JENNIFER C. YATES
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - Jubilant family members celebrated news early Wednesday that 12 miners were pulled alive from the scene of an underground explosion, only to learn nearly three hours later that they had been misled and only one miner actually survived.
International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield said the initial report from the rescue team was that there were 12 survivors from Monday's explosion. That proved to be a miscommunication.
The company never confirmed the initial report, but word spread among the hundreds of people gathered at the Sago Baptist Church that 12 miners had survived the explosion at the Sago Mine, which is located about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.
Even Gov. Joe Manchin shared in the initial joy, saying "The rescue people have been talking to us. They told us they have 12 alive.''
But three hours later, joy turned to anger when Hatfield announced that a mistake had been made.
"There was no apology. There was no nothing. It was immediately out the door,'' said Nick Helms, son of miner Terry Helms.
Hatfield told the families "there had been a lack of communication, that what we were told was wrong and that only one survived,'' said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was one of the trapped miners.
At that point, chaos broke out in the church, Groves said.
About a dozen state troopers and a SWAT team were positioned along the road near the church because police were concerned about violence.
The surviving miner, Randal McCloy, 27, of Simpson, was listed in critical condition at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.
An explosion had trapped the miners 260 feet underground since early Monday and readings taken from test borings showed elevated levels of carbon monoxide in the mine on Tuesday.
The odorless, colorless gas can be lethal at high doses. At lower levels, it can cause headaches, dizziness, disorientation, nausea, fatigue and brain damage.
The 12 miners had stretched a piece of fabric across an area about 20 feet wide to block out the gas, according to Hatfield. The fabric is designed for miners to use as a barrier. Each miner had carried a breathing apparatus and had been able to use it.
One miner was found dead earlier Tuesday about 700 feet from a mine car where the employee appeared to have been working on a beltline, which brings coal out of the mine.
The explosion marks the state's deadliest mining disaster since November 1968, when 78 men - including Manchin's uncle - died in an explosion at Consol's Farmington No. 9 mine in Marion County. Nineteen bodies remain entombed in the mountain. It was that disaster that prompted Congress to pass the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.
On a national scale, the Sago Mine disaster is the worst since September 2001, when 13 miners were killed in a pair of explosions that tore through the Jim Walter Resources No. 5 mine in Brookwood, Ala.
Hatfield said company officials waited to correct the information until they knew more about the rescue.
"Let's put this in perspective. Who do I tell not to celebrate? I didn't know if there were 12 or 1 (who were alive). Until we had people who could measure the vital signs ... we didn't want to put the families through another roller coaster ... ,'' he said.
Families initially said they received word that 12 miners had survived. The call came from a mine foreman, several said.
Manchin said it would be inappropriate to blame any individual for the miscommunication.
"I was in the church with the family, and all of a sudden we heard the families in a euphoric state, and all the shouting and screaming and joyfulness, and I asked my detachments, I said, 'Do you know what's happening?' Because we were wired in and we didn't know.''
The governor said it became unclear if the miners had survived about 20 minutes later.
"And I'm the same as you and everyone else, wondering what could have happened. How could this happen?'' he said.
http://www.news-register.net/news/story/014202006_new01.asp
'They're Alive!' - Twelve Miners Rescued
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive Tuesday night, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members said.
Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation.
Relatives were yelling "They're alive!"
"Miracles happen in West Virginia and today we got one," said Charlotte Weaver, wife of Jack Weaver, one of the men who had been trapped in the mine.
"I got scared a lot of times but I couldn't give up," she said. "We have an 11-year-old son and I couldn't go home and tell him, 'Daddy wasn't coming home.'"
One miner was found dead earlier Tuesday, the mine's owner, International Coal Group Inc. said.
Neither the company nor the governor's office immediately confirmed the news.
There were hugs and tears among the crowd outside the Sago Baptist Church located near the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.
A relative at the church said a mine foreman called relatives there saying the miners had been found.
Rescue crews found one body late Tuesday in a West Virginia mine where all 13 miners were trapped since early Monday morning, and said they were holding out hope that the others were still alive, even as precious time continued to slip away.
The unidentified body was found about 700 feet from a mine car, and it appeared the employee was working on a beltline, which brings coal out of the mine, said Ben Hatfield, chief executive officer for ICG of Ashland, Ky.
The miners had been trapped 260 feet below the surface of the Sago Mine.
Gov. Joe Manchin said earlier Tuesday that poor air quality said stacked the odds against a happy ending, but he was still optimistic.
Rescuers located the body about 11,250 feet from the mine's entrance. Officials had thought the miners were about 12,000 feet inside the mine.
Hatfield said it appeared that the other miners were able to get out of the mine car "under their own power."
Company officials have refused to speculate on the cause of the blast, but the governor's office said it might have been caused by lightning.
Hatfield said rescue crews did not find a cave-in or a roof collapse in the mine. He said the explosion may have occurred in an abandoned section of the mine that was sealed off in December.
Manchin said the abandoned section did not have equipment "back there that could make it (the explosion) happen."
Families had hoped the fact that the mine car was undamaged meant the other miners had been able to escape unharmed.
Earlier Tuesday, the prospects of finding any of the miners alive appeared bleak after holes drilled into the ground yielded deadly levels of carbon monoxide and no signs of life.
"With each hour that passes, the likelihood of a successful outcome diminishes," Hatfield said, adding that the rescue effort was "clearly in the situation where we need a miracle."
Rescue teams worked their way through the mine on foot for fear machinery might cause volatile gases to explode.
The company told families that a powerful explosion had rocked the mine, based on damage near where the miners may be trapped, said Rick McGee, who works at the mine with McCloy, his brother-in-law.
Cinderblock walls meant to direct the flow of air inside the mine were knocked down by the blast, McGee said.
Given the new information, McGee said, "There's a chance, not a great chance, but there is still a chance" that the miners could still be alive if they were able to barricade themselves.
President Bush said the nation was praying for the men.
http://theintelligencer.net/news/story/014202006_new00.asp
The Beckley Register Herald
The headlines haven't changed since early morning hours.
http://www.register-herald.com/
12 miners found alive
One found dead in Upshur County mine
By Allen G. Breed
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
By Allen G. Breed
Associated Press Writer
TALLMANSVILLE — Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive Tuesday night, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members and Gov. Joe Manchin said.
Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation.
Relatives were yelling, “They’re alive!”
Manchin said rescuers told him the miners were found.
“They told us they have 12 alive,” Manchin said. “We have some people that are going to need some medical attention.”
A few minutes after word came, the throng, several hundred strong, broke into a chorus of the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” in a chilly, night air.
“Miracles happen in West Virginia and today we got one,” said Charlotte Weaver, wife of Jack Weaver, one of the men who had been trapped in the mine.
“I got scared a lot of times but I couldn’t give up,” she said. “We have an 11-year-old son and I couldn’t go home and tell him, ‘Daddy wasn’t coming home.”’
One miner was found dead earlier Tuesday, the mine’s owner, International Coal Group Inc. said. He was not immediately identified.
The company did not immediately confirm the news.
There were hugs and tears among the crowd outside the Sago Baptist Church located near the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.
A relative at the church said a mine foreman called relatives there saying the miners had been found.
Helen Winans, whose son Marshall Winans, is one of those trapped said she believes there was divine intervention.
“The Lord takes care of them,” she said.
Breanna Williams, whose sisters’ father Jesse Jones was among the trapped, said she found out about the miners being found from other families who were running from the church proclaiming, “Praise the Lord, they are alive.”
The body was found about 700 feet from a mine car, and it appeared the employee was working on a beltline, which brings coal out of the mine, said Ben Hatfield, chief executive officer for ICG of Ashland, Ky.
The mine car was empty, which led rescuers to believe the others may have been safe somewhere else in the mine.
The miners had been trapped 260 feet below the surface of the Sago Mine.
http://www.register-herald.com/homepage/local_story_004010657.html?keyword=leadpicturestory
McAteer: We can mine coal without this type of accident
By John Veasey
TIMES WEST VIRGINIAN
FAIRMONT — J. Davitt McAteer was a law student at West Virginia University in 1968 when an explosion at the Farmington No. 9 mine tragically claimed 78 lives.
That explosion not only had a great impact on the Fairmont native, it changed the course of his life.
“I started a book on mine safety and health soon after that,” he said Tuesday in a telephone interview while driving from his home in the Eastern Panhandle to Washington for some television interviews.
He helped enact the 1969 federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, founded the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center in the 1970s and served as assistant secretary for mine safety and health at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Clinton administration.
McAteer admits he has been very pleased with the much improved safety in coal mines over the years, but said this week’s Upshur County accident could not be described as “inevitable.”
“It’s not inevitable,” he said. “In this day and age, coal mining should be operating year in and year out without this type of disaster. We have not created new ways to explode mines. What we have is a repeat of the old ways. And if this is the case (in Upshur County), we need to be able to mine coal without this type of disaster.
“When you consider that from 1968, when we were having 250 fatalities a year, we have made remarkable progress in the industry,” he continued. “It is sad and unfortunate that we start the sixth year of the new century with this type of accident, which is a real throwback to the old days.”
McAteer was asked about similarities between what happened at the Upshur County mine and the Farmington No. 9 disaster of 1968.
“In Farmington, you had an emission source later found out to be a welding torch,” he said. “Here we don’t know. It is either an emission from lightning, which is less probable, or something underground that was possible such as a battery charging station.
“That’s all speculation, of course,” he said. “We do think it was underground. We have some barometric pressure drops, a change in the weather. As the barometer comes down, you liberate more gas. In the Farmington case, it was a lot of liberation. The weather change will impact mining problems.”
McAteer said that historically, the months of November, December and January are the ones when most mining disasters occur.
“The air becomes lighter, and in the wintertime that happens with more regularity. The gas buildup reported in the Sago Mine was not that unusual after an explosion,” McAteer said.
“After an explosion, there can be a carbon monoxide buildup, and you have to be concerned about it. You may have some carbon monoxide coming from the abandoned work areas of the mine as well. So there are two potential sources.”
The Sago Mine had been cited by federal inspectors for 46 alleged violations of federal mine health and safety rules during an 11-week review that ended Dec. 22. How important, or unimportant, were these mining infractions?
“It’s hard to say to pick one in particular,” he said. “It’s not a positive sign. If you’re managing the operation, you would like to have a low number. The last two years these numbers have gone up on the state and federal level, I understand. That’s not a positive sign.”
McAteer said the mine management has changed during the past six months. “They are suggesting that the numbers have come down since new management took over, but I can’t speak to that,” he said.
The mine has reported 42 injuries since 2000 that resulted in lost work time.
McAteer, who is now vice president for Sponsored Programs at Wheeling Jesuit University, said “that’s again something you don’t want. You want to be at the higher end of that spectrum. You want to see them (the figures) going down. These are indicators you don’t want to have.”
http://www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_004011033.html?keyword=topstory
UMWA makes plans to analyze Sago Mine explosion
Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
Once all of the facts are in from Upshur County, the United Mine Workers of America plans to analyze the Sago Mine explosion to see if new safety legislation is needed at the federal level, union President Cecil Roberts said Tuesday.
Roberts offered to visit the scene while rescue teams attempted to find 12 miners trapped by an explosion at the non-union installation. The body of one miner was found Tuesday night.
But Roberts said the company didn’t roll out the welcome mat for his union.
“Until that offer is accepted, they will not allow us on the property,” he said.
For now, the UMWA leader said, the immediate task at hand is to be a force of prayer for the trapped workers and their loved ones.
“The first priority has to be that our hearts and prayers go out to the miners’ families and pray for a miracle, and also for the support of those families and friends of the miners,” he said.
“I know what they’re going through. I’ve had to deal with this a number of times in my lifetime and career. It’s one of the more difficult things you deal with. I feel for them.”
Roberts emphasized the UMWA views the tragedy as one involving fellow workers in the industry, without regard to union status.
“Because they’re not union doesn’t change the fact that we’re all brothers and sisters,” he said.
“We’re very much concerned about them. I hurt for them and feel for them and pray for them.”
At least two of the rescue teams at the Sago Mine include union members, he pointed out.
“UMWA members are risking their lives to try to help these miners as we speak,” Roberts said.
The union president pointed out every safety law enacted to protect miners on the job has emanated from an industry tragedy, most notably the 1969 federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, inspired by the Farmington No. 9 mine disaster of a year earlier.
In the wake of every accident, Roberts said, the union studies to see if something can be done to prevent a similar tragedy, and Sago’s explosion is no exception.
“We will be looking at this also and try to determine what happened. There might be something there we need to know about in order to try to persuade Congress to pass legislation so that it will not happen again. But it’s premature for any of us to be speculating about what happened there.”
— E-mail:
mannix@register-herald.com
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