W. Va. safety agency warns about failure of breathing units that have been exposed to heat
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The state agency overseeing mine safety in West Virginia yesterday issued a warning that could result in the recall of potentially thousands of underground emergency breathing units because there is no way of knowing if they have been exposed to excessive heat.
Ron Wooten, director of the West Virginia Office of Miner Health Safety and Training, said early data from the first survey of self-contained rescuers at the state's coal mines revealed that 2,750 devices designed to supply an hour's worth of oxygen to trapped miners have no gauge or monitor that would show if they had been exposed to excessive heat that would render them useless.
That would amount to as much as one-fourth of the more than 10,000 air packs (known as self-contained self-rescuers) in use in the state.
The devices are damaged when kept in places such as hot automobiles or around heat-generating equipment. The notice advised miners to keep the units away from such things as hydraulic equipment, bulldozers and shower rooms.
The self-rescuers produce oxygen through a chemical reaction when they are activated. Excessive heat can cause the chemicals to degrade and cause the units to malfunction.
"SCSRs that are suspected by anyone of having been exposed to excessive temperature shall be withdrawn from service," Mr. Wooten said in a memo to the state's mine operators. "The safe care of SCSRs shall be emphasized in all future SCSR training."
Mr. Wooten's memorandum instructed mine operators to meet with employees to brief them on the safe handling and storage of the breathing devices.
The largest number of suspect SCSRs were 2,700 SR-100 models manufactured by Monroeville-based CSE prior to August 2004. They are the same model carried by miners who became stranded underground Jan. 2 at the Sago Mine after an explosion there. Twelve of the stranded miners died, and the lone survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., later complained that four of the units failed to function properly.
Later tests at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed that the devices were capable of generating oxygen.
Mr. McCloy has since sued CSE.
The inventory also found 67 air packs made by Draeger Safety, based in Pittsburgh, that lacked temperature sensors and another 15 made by Ocenco Inc., a Wisconsin firm, that had been damaged by heat.
West Virginia data found that of 4,300 CSE SR-100s with temperature indicators, 63 had been removed from service because of indications they had been exposed to excessive temperatures. CSE is the only manufacturer to install a heat indicator on its rescuers. Of 3,600 other models, called the EBA-6.5, about 15 had been taken out of service for the same reason.
Yesterday's memo and summary of the air pack survey findings, also included lengthy rebuttals by CSE, whose president complained that the inspections, performed using testing equipment manufactured by a competitor, was flawed in some of its findings.
One major revelation of the statewide inventory -- which came after OMHST discovered some of its own inspectors were carrying heat-damaged units -- was that some safety inspectors had ignored CSE's own warnings about keeping the units clear of excessive heat.
Scott Shearer, CSE president, noted this in his written response to the report.
"CSE relies on the operators and federal and state mine inspectors to assist the miners in identifying and removing damaged units in accordance with manufacturer inspections," Mr. Shearer wrote. "When OMHST ignores manufacturer warnings on temperature and physical damage resulting in carrying units that are so obviously damaged into mines, OMHST sends the wrong message to the industry."
Mr. Shearer also noted that CSE has incorporated a gauge in its models made since 2004 that shows when it has been exposed to too much heat.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
State mine safety regulators plan to release their report on the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine fire on Thursday, officials said.
The state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training will issue the report on the January fire that killed two workers at the Massey Energy-owned mine in Logan County.
Agency officials plan to brief the state Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety on the Aracoma report during a meeting Thursday afternoon in Charleston.
The report will be released to the public, and posted on the agency’s Web site, www.wvminesafety.org, after the meeting, said spokeswoman Caryn Gresham.
But first, agency officials will brief the families of miners Donald Bragg and Ellery Hatfield, who died in the fire. Also, in a change of state policy, agency investigators will brief Massey Energy officials before the report is released to the public.
Ron Wooten, Gov. Joe Manchin’s new mine safety director, said he had “no real modus operandi” for adding the company briefing to the state’s investigation policies.
“I’ve been on the other side of these things, and it just seemed like, in my mind, it was the appropriate thing to do,” Wooten said.
Wooten said the meeting would go on, despite the failure of the mine safety board to announce the meeting in time to have it published in the State Register five days in advance, as is required by state law.
“I wasn’t intending to violate the open-meetings law at all,” Wooten said. “I don’t know what we do about that.”
The Jan. 19 fire broke out on a conveyor belt deep inside the Aracoma Mine. Most of the workers escaped, but Bragg and Hatfield became separated from their fellow miners. Their bodies were found about two days later, after a frantic search by dozens of rescuers.
Aracoma miners have told investigators that Bragg and Hatfield were lost when their crew hit smoke in their primary escape tunnel, and had to find another route out of the mine, according to interview transcripts.
Miners also told investigators that the primary escape tunnel filled with smoke because block walls that were supposed to separate it from the conveyor belt had been removed, according to the transcripts.
Davitt McAteer, Manchin’s special mine safety investigator, has not yet completed his independent review of the Aracoma fire. Federal prosecutors are also continuing a criminal investigation.
Under state law, the mine safety office inspects mines and conducts accident investigations. The mine safety board reviews those investigations and writes the state’s mine safety rules.
James Bennett, a former union coal miner and Manchin staffer, is now administrator of the state’s coal mine safety board.
Bennett said Tuesday that it was his fault that the public notice for Thursday’s meeting did not comply with state law.
“I’m new to this job, and I don’t know all of the ins and outs right yet,” Bennett said.
Under state law, public meeting announcements must be submitted to the secretary of state in time to be published five days in advance of meeting dates. The notice for Thursday’s meeting was not filed until Tuesday, after a Gazette reporter inquired about the notice.
State law says that when meetings are not properly noticed, “any adversely affected party” can sue to invalidate any action taken at the meetings.
Wooten said that the release of the Aracoma report less than a week before Tuesday’s general election is “totally coincidental.”
Wooten said that the report was being finalized on Tuesday, and that he wanted to issue it as soon as possible.
“As soon as investigations are completed, we want the reports out,” Wooten said. “If there’s anything in that report that can be helpful to the industry, we want that out there.
“Election day was never, ever mentioned,” Wooten said. “The only time it’s been mentioned was when the press has mentioned it.”
Massey President Don Blankenship has vowed to spend whatever it takes of his personal wealth to put a majority of Republicans into the state Legislature.
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 304-348-1702.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Survivor recalls Springhill mine explosion that killed 39 men 50 years ago
ChronicleHerald.ca - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
November 1, 2006
SPRINGHILL — Ken Melanson leans against a coal car. His eyes squinting, the 69-year-old surveys the site of Springhill’s old coal mines.
"I was working, helping fill one of these when the mine almost killed me," he said, patting the side of the coal car. "I remember that day 50 years ago like it was yesterday."
That day was Nov. 1, 1956, when an explosion in the No. 4 colliery killed 39 people and left Mr. Melanson and several others trapped for days deep inside the bowels of the earth.
"It was a beautiful Indian summer day," the Springhill man recalled. "It was a Thursday. On the way to work I stopped into the miners’ hall and chatted with the guys."
There he met his best friends Floyd Beaton and Richard Ellis. Together they went to the Dominion Steel and Coal-owned mine for their late-afternoon shift. After changing into their mining clothes and collecting their lamps, they waited underneath an apple tree for their turn to go underground.
"We waited right there," he said, pointing to a gnarled old tree. "We talked about hunting and fishing. Little did we know that it was the last time we’d be together."
At 3 p.m., the three men and 125 others headed into the pit. It took Mr. Melanson an hour to get to his work site, which was more than 1,700 metres down on the pit’s west wall.
Work was progressing normally. About an hour into the shift, as he shovelled coal onto a conveyor belt, Mr. Melanson felt a strong gust of wind.
"It was unusual, but I didn’t pay it any mind. I kept on working," he remembered.
He didn’t know it, but above him all hell was breaking loose.
Several coal boxes had broken away from a mine train hauling a load of coal dust to the surface. They rolled backward into the mine, derailed and sliced into a 25,000-volt power line.
Sparks from the crash ignited coal dust at the 1,670-metre level, causing an explosion that ripped through the mine. Eyewitnesses later told reporters that a ball of flame shot 60 metres into the sky. The smoke that followed created a mushroom-like cloud above the mine.
The blast wrecked the pithead. Nearby buildings were set ablaze and five men working near the pithead were killed by the force of the blast.
"I never even heard the explosion. I just kept on working until I heard someone yell ‘Knock off! Knock off!’ That was the signal to immediately quit work because something had happened," Mr. Melanson recalled.
Above ground, families who were eating dinner heard the wail of a siren — the traditional disaster signal in mining communities. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, firemen and police rushed to the pithead to begin rescue efforts; All Saints Hospital was alerted; the local armoury was set up to receive casualties; and some miners staggered to the surface.
Below ground Mr. Melanson was trying to escape from the pit. "I’d walked about three-quarters of a mile and was about to go around a turn when someone hollered ‘Don’t go there, there’s gas!’ I stopped. I could see one body."
Mr. Melanson turned around. Shortly after, he met up with Conrad Embree. Conn, as he was known, had survived two previous explosions in different mines. "He became our leader."
Mr. Embree had about 50 men, including Mr. Melanson, go through a trap door into an auxiliary shaft. But that escape route was also blocked by gas, so he had them make a barricade to try to keep the gas out. They also cut holes in an air line so they could breathe. There they waited, and one by one their lamps dimmed, leaving them in darkness.
"Someone found a battery and we hooked a lamp to it. Every now and then Conn would turn it on and write an entry into a book that included the time and what we were doing. It was the only light we had for most of the time we were trapped."
Sometimes they sang. Other times they talked about hunting or fishing. Mostly they sat and waited as miners from around the province worked frantically to rescue them. Some were barefaced, others wore a breathing apparatus designed by a German named Draeger. They became known as draegermen and, according to the CBC, it was the first time such breathing apparatus had been used in a Canadian mine rescue.
By Friday morning 13 men were confirmed dead.
Dosco general manager H.M.C. Gordon and mine manager George Calder held out little hope for the 50 men still trapped underground. But others were faintly hopeful for survivors because they could see a gauge on the mine’s air compressor fluctuating, an indication that somewhere in the mine air was being used.
By Saturday the rescuers, including barefaced miners, had reached the 975-metre level, only to find a smouldering fire. Fearing a second explosion, they temporarily abandoned the mine. A decision was made to snuff out the fire by sealing the shaft with concrete.
"When we saw concrete-filled water running into the area where we were waiting, the room went completely silent. We all remembered that a mine in Belgium from which few survived had recently been sealed with concrete," Mr. Melanson said.
"I was cold, hungry and scared. Conn Embree began asking the men if they wanted to record some thoughts in his journal. Many of the older guys did. I didn’t. I was too frightened."
The rescuers, despite the gas and threat of explosions, dug deeper into the mine. They worked around the clock. Two of them succumbed to gas. Others were knocked unconscious and were carried out of the mine and taken to hospital. Once they recovered they immediately rejoined the rescue efforts.
Late Sunday evening, after digging through several rockfalls, the rescuers reached the 1,640-metre level.
"I’ll never forget hearing that thump on the trap door. Or the sight we saw when we opened it. It was a group of draegermen. They told us help was on the way, Melanson said, a small smile breaking out on his face.
"It was a miracle they found us. One that was created by the hard work of the rescuers and the wisdom of Conn Embree. It was his efforts, his knowledge of mines that kept us trapped men alive."
When word of survivors reached the surface, it spread through town like wildfire. A large crowd gathered at the wrecked pithead, anxious to find out who had survived.
Rescuers began removing the survivors from the mine shortly after midnight on Monday, Nov. 5. "The CBC read the name of each man as they were brought to the surface. I was taken out at around 3 a.m. They took me to the hospital and then to the armoury," Mr. Melanson said.
"Thirty-nine people were killed in the disaster, including my two friends. Today, I remember them every Miners Memorial Day on June 11 by going to the service and by saying a little prayer for them each day."
Mr. Melanson never went back into the Springhill mines, but he continued mining in River Hebert. He also spent many years urging people to remember Springhill’s mining disasters, through appearances in schools and working as a tour guide at the Springhill Miners Museum.
"We can’t ever forget them," he said, his eyes and head dropping as if in silent prayer.
To mark the anniversary the community is holding a service tonight at the Anglican church beginning at 7 p.m.
"I will be there to offer my prayer for my lost friends and to remember," Mr. Melanson said. "It’s the least I can do."
16 miners trapped after landslide in northwest China
China Daily - China
November 1, 2006
LANZHOU -- Sixteen coal miners were trapped after a landslide in northwest China's Gansu Province on Wednesday morning, according to the local work safety bureau.
The landslide occurred at about 10 a.m. in Deshun Coal Mine Fields in Honggu District of Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, said Ding Yongping, an official with the Lanzhou Work Safety Bureau.
Ding said the landslide blocked the pithead of Deshun Coal Mine, trapping all 16 miners underground, and also buried some houses.
A rescue operation is underway and medical workers have arrived at the site, Ding added.
Local work safety and government officials are overseeing rescue efforts. Lanzhou Mayor Zhang Jinliang was en route for the site.
On Tuesday, 29 miners were killed and 19 more injured in a coal mine gas explosion in the same province.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
GOODY - Two men were injured yesterday afternoon in an equipment-related accident at a mined-out coal mine when they were thrown from a conveyer belt they were disassembling, officials say.
The men, who were reportedly conscious and able to talk despite their injuries, are contractors and employees of R & J Recycling out of Charleston, W.Va.. However, the extent of their injuries was unknown, according to Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the state Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet.
Roger Oiler, age and address unavailable as of press time, was said to be flown to a Huntington, W.Va.-area hospital, Wolfe said.
However, Belfry Volunteer Fire Department Chief Nee Jackson reported that one of the men was flown to Bristol Regional Hospital for treatment because of weather conditions.
Charles Mullins, age and address unavailable, was taken to Williamson Memorial Hospital. His injuries were reportedly not as serious as Oiler's.
According to Mark York, another spokesman for the EPPC, the accident was equipment-related and occurred around 3:45 p.m.
The two men were outside of a mined-out mine and using torches to cut up an assembly belt at the Burnwell Energy Mine, located on KY 292 in Burnwell, when they were thrown off of it, Wolfe said.
Burnwell Energy is operated by Road Fork Development, a division of Massey Energy's Rawl Sales and Processing operation located near Matewan, W.Va.
Attempts to reach Massey Energy officials Tuesday evening were unsuccessful.
Wolfe said there will be an investigation into the accident and other employees will be interviewed beginning today.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
State mine agency warns operators of more heat damaged air packs
Daily Mail - Charleston - Charleston,WV,USA By The Associated Press Wednesday November 01, 2006
The state's mine safety office has warned coal mine operators that heat damage to emergency air packs could be more widespread than originally thought.
Recent tests and an inventory of emergency air packs prompted the Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training to warn underground mine operators and contractors to make sure air packs aren't exposed to heat sources, such as hydraulic lines and heavy equipment.
Tuesday's notice also directed mine operators to remove any air packs suspected of exposure to high temperatures and to notify the agency.
The testing and inventory were conducted in reaction to the Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 miners in January, and another mine accident later that month in which two men died in a conveyor belt fire.
"What we're concerned about is the fact that some units out there may have been exposed to higher temperatures unwittingly and that, if so, maybe those units need to be looked at very carefully," mine safety chief Ron Wooten said. "I wouldn't think that there would be a high percentage, but I would think that there may be some out there. If you happen to need one and you happen to get one of those that had been exposed, then you would not be in the best situation."
The state sent a similar notice in August after preliminary tests of air packs carried by its mine inspectors found evidence of heat damage caused by mishandling. State inspectors routinely kept air packs in vehicles, where summer sun can propel temperatures to damaging levels.
The earlier notice focused on air packs made by Monroeville, Pa.-based CSE Corp. It makes the smallest, lightest air packs, which has helped the company gain about 65 percent of the national market. CSE manufactured the emergency air packs used by the Sago miners.
On about a fourth of the 10,500 air packs in use across the state, potential damage from heat exposure couldn't be determined because they don't have sensors, the state said.
The biggest concern involves the CSE air packs. The inventory shows about 2,500 CSE air packs lack temperature sensors, while temperatures sensors had been tripped on 63 newer units.
The inventory also found about 70 air packs made by Pittsburgh-based Draeger Safety that lack temperature sensors and 15 made by Pleasant Prairie, Wis.-based Ocenco Inc. with heat damage.
CSE President Scott Shearer said he largely agreed with the notice because it highlighted his own concerns. However, Shearer said his small, family owned company can only do so much. CSE offers training, but a majority of customers decline. And the company keeps its recommendations broad because heat sources, for instance, would be a lengthy list.
To Shearer, the answer lies in changing the culture of the mining industry to prevent poor care and handling of air packs.
"It takes the industry to address this," he said.
Shearer also faulted Mine Safety and Health for replacing a portion of the air packs carried by its inspectors with devices made by Draeger, which do not have temperature sensors.
Wooten said that decision was made by his predecessor, former acting director James Dean, who personally tested CSE and Draeger air packs. Years of government tests have found Draeger air packs are easier to breathe from than CSE units.
Under Wooten, the agency is working with Draeger and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop external heat sensors. Getting NIOSH approval should be no problem, Wooten said.
CSE has been under scrutiny since the Jan. 2 explosion at the Sago Mine. Survivor Randal McCloy Jr., who has sued CSE, has said four members of his 12-man team could not get their CSE air packs to work. Federal testing shows the devices were able to generate oxygen.
Earlier this month, NIOSH released its own test results that disclosed problems with CSE air packs, including damaged air hoses and high levels of carbon dioxide, are getting worse, not better.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Meeting on Aracoma Report Canceled Because Adequate Notice not Given Blankenship questioned the meeting's timing
WTRF - Wheeling, WV, USA
Story by Juliet A. Terry
November 1, 2006
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training has cancelled its planned Nov. 2 release of the investigation from from the Aracoma mining accident.
The office failed to provide the required five days notice of a public meeting because the meeting was not announced until Oct. 31.
Word that mining officials were going to present the report Nov. 2 to the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety just days before the general election produced some angry words from political activist and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.
The Jan. 19 accident killed two men — Donald Bragg and Ellery Hatfield — and occurred just weeks after the Sago mine tragedy. Massey Energy owns the Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine in Logan County.
Blankenship issued a statement to the media through his political group, And For the Sake of the Kids. He accused the state of moving up the meeting to Nov. 2 “in a clear attempt to use state government power to defame me and to influence Tuesday’s election.”
“The coordination between government officials and incumbent politicians running for office next Tuesday is very apparent. The behavior of the state officials and the politicians threaten all businessmen and every West Virginian's freedom of speech,” Blankenship said.
According to Caryn Gresham, spokeswoman for the state mining office, the decision to release the report Nov. 2 was made without any consultation with the Governor’s Office but rather because the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety wanted the Aracoma investigation results as soon as they were available.
Gresham issued a news release today that said, “Because of an administrative oversight in noticing the meeting and to ensure that all proper meeting posting procedures have been followed, the Nov. 2 meeting of the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety has been cancelled. In addition, the press briefing scheduled to be held following the afternoon meeting is cancelled as well.”
Gresham said the board’s next regularly scheduled meetings are Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
The day before the mining office cancelled the meeting, Gresham said the goal always has been “to provide information to the family, to the company and to the public in a timely manner and to hope that the finding will help the industry put in place additional safeguard or to review operations and mining practices to make sure that underground miners have as safe a working environment as possible."
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Trapped miners rescued after landslide in northwest China
LANZHOU, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- All the 16 coal miners who were trapped after a Wednesday landslide in northwest China's Gansu Province were rescued late Wednesday night.
The miners fought to escape from the shaft while rescuers outside struggled to reopen the pit head, Yan Chenglu, deputy secretary-general of the Lanzhou city government, said at the rescue site.
The miners dug an eight-meter-long tunnel with a diameter of about one meter with spades, bars and other tools they found in the mine shaft, said Yan.
The miners appeared to be in good physical condition when they stepped out of the pit and were sent to hospital for a medical check.
"We guessed it was a landslide and not a gas blast or flood because there was no water and no smell of gas in the shaft," a rescued miner called Wang told Xinhua.
Wang, the last miner to emerge from the blocked mine, is receiving treatment at Honggu District hospital in Lanzhou, where the coal mine is located.
"We were frightened at the beginning, but we soon calmed down because we knew we were not far from ground surface," said Wang. "I told myself we can definitely get out safely."
"Later, we heard the sound of excavators digging and that boosted our morale enormously," he said.
The miners spent more than 14 hours digging their "tunnel of life".
"It's so wonderful to be able to see our families and colleagues again," said Wang.
An estimated 1.4 million cubic meters of mud slid and blocked the mouths of the main pit in Deshun Coal Mine Fields at around 10a.m. Wednesday, trapping all the 16 miners underground, and burying a number of houses.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- State investigators said missing walls that control air flow and faulty firefighting equipment were key factors in a conveyor belt fire that killed two miners at a Massey Energy Co. mine in January.
Investigators concluded the missing walls allowed smoke to enter the main escape route at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine, according to the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training in a report released Thursday.
The investigation found that water lines for fire hoses and sprinklers at the scene of the fire were shut off and that fire hoses at the site couldn't be connected because of incompatible fittings, a fact that had been reported to management after a similar fire on Dec. 23.
The fire started, according to the investigators, because a misaligned conveyor belt that carries coal was rubbing a bearing, causing friction. Mine personnel were unable to fix the alignment problem before the evening shift started, but operated the belt anyway, according to the report.
Miners Don. I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery Elvis Hatfield, 47, got separated from their crew in the smoke-filled Logan County mine and were unable to escape the Jan. 19 fire. According to the report, the crew was not notified of the danger until about 40 minutes after the fire broke out at 5 p.m.
Miners' Health Safety and Training issued 169 notices of violation and recommended the withdrawal or suspension of seven miners' certificates, according to the report.
Aracoma Coal Co., the Massey subsidiary that operates the mine, said in the report it has replaced the missing air controls, installed a new fire sprinkler system and made sure fire hoses and fittings work.
Massey, based in Richmond, Va., issued a statement that said it has no specific comments, though it did say there were missing air control walls and other conditions "that did not meet" its standards.
"The conditions appear to have occurred despite a rigorous requirement of safety examinations and inspections for underground mines," Massey said. "At Aracoma, it appears that deficiencies were not fully recognized by mine personnel or by state or federal inspectors."
The company said it "remains deeply saddened by the loss of its two miners."
A message left for mine safety chief Ron Wooten was not returned, but spokeswoman Caryn Gresham said the agency is not commenting Thursday.
The Aracoma fire remains the subject of a civil investigation by MSHA and a criminal probe by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charleston. Aracoma has been issued 500 citations and orders by MSHA since the Jan. 19 fire.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
More on the WV Final Aracoma Accident Investigation
State faults Massey in report on fatal Aracoma fire
Kentucky.com - Lexington,KY,USA
TIM HUBER
Associated Press
November 2, 2006
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - State investigators said missing walls that control air flow and faulty firefighting equipment were key factors in the deaths of two miners in a conveyor belt fire at an underground coal mine in January.
Investigators concluded the missing walls allowed smoke to enter the main escape route at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine, the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training said in a report released Thursday.
The investigation found that water lines for fire hoses and sprinklers at the scene of the fire were shut off and that fire hoses at the site couldn't be connected because of incompatible fittings, a problem that had been reported to management after a similar fire on Dec. 23.
Investigators said the fire resulted from a misaligned conveyor belt that carries coal. The belt was rubbing a bearing, causing friction. Mine personnel were unable to fix the alignment problem before the evening shift started, but operated the belt anyway, according to the report.
Miners Don. I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery Elvis Hatfield, 47, got separated from their crew in the smoke-filled Logan County mine and were unable to escape the Jan. 19 fire. According to the report, the crew was not notified of the danger until about 40 minutes after the fire broke out at 5 p.m. Eddie Lester, vice president of operations for the mine, did not notify the state about the fire and the two missing miners until 7:33 p.m.
Massey said in a statement that it "remains deeply saddened" by the deaths, but declined to make specific comments. However, the company did concede the walls were missing and other conditions did not meet its standards.
"At Aracoma, it appears that deficiencies were not fully recognized by mine personnel or by state or federal inspectors," Massey said.
The United Mine Workers of America said the report shows Massey's mine was "set up to be a death trap."
"Everywhere you turn in this report, there is another safety procedure that was supposed to be followed that wasn't or safety equipment that was supposed to be in place that either wasn't there or didn't work," said UMW President Cecil Roberts.
Fire-suppression systems, carbon monoxide monitors and ventilation controls are management's responsibility, he said.
"The report clearly shows that this is a tragedy that didn't have to happen, shouldn't have happened, and only happened because proper and required safety and maintenance procedures were not followed at that mine," he said. "This is yet another example of what happens when upper management puts pressure on a mine to 'run coal' before doing anything else."
That comment refers to a memo Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship sent Massey mines last fall.
The report was released after Gov. Joe Manchin met with members of Hatfield's and Bragg's families. Manchin said he promised the family the report, along with two others expected from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and Manchin special assistant Davitt McAteer, will be used to make more changes to mining laws and rules.
Manchin also placed part of the blame on the state.
"We can not and will not overlook the fact that, for various reasons, MHST's inspection processes and reports prior to this deadly fire apparently did not fully and accurately capture the safety conditions present at this particular mine," Manchin said. "We take this finding very seriously."
Since Aracoma and the Jan. 2 explosion at the Sago Mine that killed 12 miners, the state has hired a new safety director and overhauled its rules and role in mine safety. Among other things, the agency is taking on certification and testing of equipment such as emergency air packs and communication systems.
The report offered only scant details on disciplinary action against Massey. Miners' Health Safety and Training issued 169 notices of violation, including 16 against individuals. The agency said it recommended the withdrawal or suspension of seven miners' certificates.
According to the report, Aracoma Coal Co., the Massey subsidiary that operates the mine, has replaced the missing air controls, installed a new fire sprinkler system and made sure fire hoses and fittings work.
A message left for mine safety chief Ron Wooten was not returned, but spokeswoman Caryn Gresham said the agency would not comment Thursday.
Richmond, Va.-based Massey's ownership of the Aracoma Mine has added political overtones to the report and the timing of its release.
Blankenship has long been a fierce critic of Manchin and has accused the Democrat's administration of timing the report to influence Tuesday's election. Manchin and officials with Miners' Health, Safety and Training have denied the charge.
Blankenship has spent more than $1.8 million of his personal fortune promoting 41 hand-picked Republican candidates in state elections this fall. He aims to give the GOP control of the House of Delegates for the first time in seven decades.
The Aracoma fire remains the subject of a civil investigation by MSHA and a criminal probe by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charleston. Aracoma has been issued 500 citations and orders by MSHA since the Jan. 19 fire.
Massey is the nation's fourth-largest coal producer by revenue and has operations in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
W.Va. report finds problems existed before Aracoma fire
Friday, November 03, 2006
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Two coal miners died because they became lost in a wall of smoke inside a burning mine that lacked a supply of water to fight the blaze, walls to keep smoke out of the escape route, or even a working telephone system, according to a West Virginia report on the Jan. 19 deaths at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine.
Survivors who testified before a team from the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training about the fire said there had been signs of trouble along the No. 9 belt line at the mine in the days leading up to the fatal fire. The mine is owned by Virginia-based Massey Energy Corp.
When the fire erupted, miners used handheld fire extinguishers, and discovered that fire hose couplings did not match the water line fixtures, which turned out to have no water anyway.
Bryan Cabell, a mine belt examiner, told investigators he used up two or three handheld extinguishers, then attempted to attach a fire hose to a valve, but discovered the unmatched fittings.
"There was a fire hose lying beside a hard water line by the storage unit. I proceeded to hook it up. I could not get it to hook up onto the fire tap," Mr. Cabell testified. He just threw the fire hose down and opened the valve, "hoping I could direct it towards the fire, but there was no water in it."
A co-worker tried to locate a cutoff valve where the water supply apparently had been shut off, but was driven back by heavy smoke.
"The fire was burning out of control and no means was available to fight the fire," the report states.
Another miner, Brandon Conley, testified that he discovered the problem with mismatched fire couplings when a smoldering fire broke out in the same area a month earlier "and he could not get the fire hose to connect to the water hose outlet. He stated this condition was reported to management at that time."
In his testimony, Mr. Conley said he left Aracoma because he "just [didn't] feel safe there anymore" working by himself.
Two miners, Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield, 47, died of smoke inhalation after they became separated from other members of a work crew that learned of the fire only after someone in the mine office turned off the belt. The deaths, and subsequent conditions inside the mine, triggered a flood of after-the-fact safety citations, an internal investigation into the performance of federal mine inspectors in the agency's Logan, W.Va., office, and a criminal probe by the U.S. attorney in Charleston into an apparent attempted cover-up.
Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater declined to take any questions yesterday, but issued a statement that attempted to, in part, deflect blame to state and federal inspectors assigned to ensure safety compliance.
"The conditions appear to have occurred despite a rigorous requirement of safety examinations and inspections for underground mines," Mr. Gillenwater's statement said. "In 2005 alone, Aracoma mine personnel conducted over 1,500 safety examinations and federal and state mine inspectors conducted nearly 200 safety inspections. Such a process normally leads to the diligent discovery and correction of potential mine hazards. At Aracoma, it appears that deficiencies were not fully recognized by mine personnel or by state or federal inspectors."
The company's president, Don Blankenship, this week issued a statement declaring the timing of the report's release a political tactic by the office of Gov. Joe Manchin III. Mr. Blankenship is financing a wholesale attempt to oust large numbers of the West Virginia Legislature, which this year passed sweeping mine safety reforms in response to the deaths at Aracoma and the Sago Mine.
Bruce Stanley, a lawyer representing the widows of Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Bragg, said the widows hoped the probes by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. attorney would continue.
"Otherwise, they fear that West Virginia will become the home of still more widows whose husbands might have made the mistake of going to work for coal operators who place profits over people and then emphasize executive salaries over employee safety," he said.
"Everywhere you turn in this report, there is another safety procedure that was supposed to be followed that wasn't or safety equipment that was supposed to be in place that either wasn't there or didn't work," said Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers union. Aracoma's workforce is not represented by the union.
Yesterday's report asserts a long list of failures by Massey, including the missing stopping, a non-functioning fire alarm along the belt line, inaccurate mine maps given to rescue crews, and an apparent attempt to erase data from the mine's computer.
The report says investigators discovered data in the mine computer had been erased sometime before March 2 of this year.
That last detail, which is believed to be part of the criminal investigation, is referred to in an attachment to the report, which provides a chronology from the point at which the belt line's fire alarm first goes off, 5:13 p.m., to the point of the last alarm, 7:13 p.m. The crew that included Mr. Bragg and Mr. Hatfield did not receive word to evacuate until 5:39 p.m. According to the report, a crew working the mine's longwall section did not learn of the fire until later.
"At approximately 5:55 p.m. Mr. Gary Richardson attempted to call out his two-hour report when he discovered that the mine phone was inoperative," the report states. "After he updated the longwall crew, the Section Foreman Mr. David R. Runyon and Chief Electrician Mr. Jamie Adkins decided to see what was going on. Approximately 10 minutes after they left, the longwall section lost power. It was at this time that the longwall crew took it upon themselves to evacuate."
The report shows that an employee assigned to oversee the conveyor belt during the day shift at the mine said the belt had shut down several times during his shift.
Carl White said "he could see a hazy mist around the mother drive and storage unit [of the belt] but could not find any problems," the report states.
Mr. White was on the surface, his shift over, by the time the fire was discovered.
In lengthy testimony, Mr. White, whose job was to oversee safety along the conveyor belt, said he had been unaware until the night of the blaze that the conveyor belts were capable of burning.
He also testified about an earlier fire on another belt line, on Dec. 29, where hot grease dripped onto the coal on the mine floor and ignited.
He reported fighting the fire with the conveyor belt still running.
"I have been taught -- you know, maybe it's wrong, don't turn the belts off, you know. Keep your belts running the week of production," Mr. White testified. "So here's production, you know."
As it turned out, he said, the fire was beneath the belt.
He testified that he later informed his supervisor, Jeff Perry, but that no report apparently was made of the incident.
"I said, 'Jeff, we had a fire on Five belt.' He did not say nothing, nothing ... I definitely believe that should have been recorded in a book, but evidently it wasn't."
The fatal fire apparently was caused because of heat built up by friction from the belt running out of alignment and rubbing against the frame of the conveyor drive. The report indicates that the condition had been building up for a lengthy period.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
BEIJING: At least eight miners were killed and another missing after a coal mine blast in north China's Shanxi Province, the local government said on Saturday.
The blast happened around noon on Friday at the Xinmin Coal Mine in Linxian County, according to the provincial work safety administration.
Initial investigations showed the blast was possibly caused by explosives, Xinhua news agency reported.
Provincial work safety officials have gone to the mine to organise rescue operations that are still underway.
On Tuesday, a coal mine blast had killed at least 29 miners and injured 19 others in northwest China's Gansu Province.
China is the world's largest coal producer and consumer. However, Chinese coal mines are considered the deadliest due to high rates of accidents. On an average, 12 miners die every day in Chinese coal mines.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Mine safety violations that caused the deaths of two miners didn’t appear overnight, the state’s mine safety director said Friday.
Ron Wooten, director of the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training, said that major safety problems at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine existed long before the fire and were not corrected.
“I think we all need to take a good, hard look at what happened here,” Wooten said Friday.
On Thursday, Wooten’s office released a 55-page report summarizing its investigation of the Aracoma fire that killed miners Don I. Bragg and Ellery Elvis Hatfield.
State inspectors cited Massey Energy subsidiary Aracoma Coal Co. for seven violations that they said contributed to the fire.
Also, in an unusual step, the agency issued sixteen “individual personal assessments” to mine managers or miners who inspectors said knowingly violated safety rules.
The state report blamed a poorly maintained conveyor belt storage system for the fire. Inspectors said the belt repeatedly became misaligned, creating friction that eventually sparked the fire.
The state’s report said that Massey managers waited too long to warn Bragg, Hatfield and their coworkers about the fire, and did not maintain fire hose and sprinklers meant to put out such a blaze.
When miners tried to escape the fire, their primary evacuation route filled with smoke because of a missing air-flow direction wall, the report said. When miners tried to find a second way out, Bragg and Hatfield became separated from the group, got lost and eventually succumbed to the fumes from the fire.
In several instances, state inspectors said that the violations that contributed to the deaths existed prior to the fire, and were reported to Massey officials, but were never corrected.
Wooten, who joined the state agency in September, said he has to wonder why state and federal inspectors did not force the problems to be fixed.
“I don’t know that anything was not done that should have been done,” said Wooten, a former CONSOL Energy official. “But I do have some concerns.
“It just seems to me that the kinds of allegations [in the state report] don’t occur overnight, and they tend to be repeated,” Wooten said. “Unless this was an anomaly, there are things that were missed.”
Several investigations of the Aracoma fire are still pending, including one by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and an independent review by Davitt McAteer, Manchin’s special adviser on mine safety issues.
Also, U.S. Attorney Chuck Miller said this week that his office is continuing a criminal investigation of the fire.
Previously, MSHA had sued Massey, alleging that the company was stonewalling investigators. And in Thursday’s report, state investigators said that a key log of smoke alarms had been deleted from an Aracoma Mine computer.
MSHA spokesman Dirk Fillpot said his agency is continuing its investigation of the fire and a related internal review of agency oversight of the Aracoma operation.
U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement that the state’s findings at Aracoma show the need for tougher mine safety enforcement nationwide.
“The failure of the most basic safety protections at this mine — water to put out fires, appropriate ventilation — shows that there are serious holes in mine safety and enforcement,” Kennedy said. “These findings prove that we still must be tougher with mine operators to make them correct safety violations and eliminate the hazards that put workers’ lives at risk.”
Earlier this year, state officials confirmed that they had not conducted an inspection of the Aracoma Mine’s electrical system for more than two years. Such inspections are required to be performed every year, under state law.
Carte Goodwin, Manchin’s general counsel, said Friday that the governor is concerned that the violations that contributed to the fire should have been caught by state inspectors before miners were killed.
“Some of these violations listed in the report attributed to the operator more than likely existed prior to Jan. 19,” Goodwin said. “And more than likely, they existed while inspections were being done and should have been cited and corrected to prevent this tragedy.”
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Richlands News-Press & Clinch Valley News - Richland, VA, USA
A.J. HOSTETLER
Media General News Service
Friday, November 3, 2006
The U.S. Geological Survey said yesterday that a minor earthquake reported Thursday in Southwest Virginia was instead a powerful mining event, possibly the collapse of an abandoned mine.
The location could not be pinned down any closer than about 8 miles north-northwest of Raven and about 10 miles northwest of Richlands in Tazewell County, and 10 miles east of Vansant in Buchanan County, according to the USGS. Yesterday, the USGS said further investigation showed the event registered magnitude 4.3, the equivalent of a light temblor.
"It almost certainly was a mine event," said Arthur Snoke, associate director of the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory. It may have been a blast, but it's more likely it was a powerful mine tremor or perhaps a ceiling collapse.
The state had no reports of the collapse of a working mine nor any reports of unusual mining activity in the area, said Mike Abbott of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Engineering. He said it was likely that the event occurred at an abandoned mine or that it might have been related to nearby blasting. The University of Memphis' Center for Earthquake Research and Information initially measured the event at 3.2 magnitude at 12:53 p.m. Thursday, according to geologist Gary Patterson.
The center has monitoring equipment in eastern Tennessee and North Carolina that tracked the event near the West Virginia border, he said.
Usually, the Virginia Tech observatory monitors earthquakes in the region and notifies the USGS, but its director was out of town Thursday.
The Memphis center posted its information on the USGS Web site of recent earthquakes, which in turn sent out e-mails announcing the event.
Then not much happened.
Such a minor earthquake would typically trigger "a thousand calls" to the USGS and normally would be felt as far away as Washington, said geophysicist John Bellini of the agency's National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado. But only a couple of calls trickled in, and the USGS Web site, which posts residents' reports, had no entries.
So USGS seismologists took a closer look. Recognizing the region's abundance of mines and the rarity of earthquakes, they determined that it was far more likely to have been a mining event, which can sometimes be confused with a temblor. Mining-related events the size of Thursday's are rare in the United States, but they are more common in African diamond mines, Bellini said. After removing the event from the list of recent U.S. earthquakes, the USGS restored it late yesterday, noting that it was probably a "collapse event."
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Hello, I try to by the dvd but it was impossible, do you think you could help me get it?
Thank you
Armando Pereira (Portugal)
Rob McGee <usmra@...> escreveu:
Right you are, James. I also recommend it. However, I don't agree that it's all that far-fetched.
We hear about China killing 6,000 per year or an average of 16+ miners per day. Some say it may actually be as high as 20,000. Blind Shaft is about a
couple creative guys who came up with a scheme to cash in on the excepted levels of death in the mines.
Another point to consider is that Blind Shaft was made before they came up with a compensation law giving $25K to the victims' family. It certainly make you wonder.
--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "jrau81" <jrau81@...> wrote: > > Anyone else who regularly observes this forum and wonders how bad the > Chinese industry must be should see the movie 'Blind Shaft' by > documentary director Li Yang. > > It is a story of two coal miners who
deliberately kill their fellow > workers to extort money from corrupt unregulated mines. Whilst possibly > far fetched it is still all filmed on location and gives a good feel > for safety standards. As expected it was banned by the Chinese > government! > > James > MineARC Systems America > www.minearc.com >
--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, Armando Pereira <acpereira8@...> wrote: > > Hello, I try to by the dvd but it was impossible, do you think you could help me get it? > Thank you > Armando Pereira (Portugal) > > Rob McGee usmra@... escreveu: > Right you are, James. I also recommend it. However, I don't agree that it's all that far-fetched. > We hear about China killing 6,000 per year or an average of 16+ miners per day. Some say it may actually be as high as 20,000. Blind Shaft is about a couple creative guys who came up with a scheme to cash in on the excepted levels of death in the mines. > Another point to consider is that Blind Shaft was made before they came up with a compensation law giving $25K to the victims' family. It certainly make you wonder. > More about this movie here . I suggest you read the movie reviews near the bottom of this link. > Rob > > --- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "jrau81" jrau81@ wrote: > > > > Anyone else who regularly observes this forum and wonders how bad the > > Chinese industry must be should see the movie 'Blind Shaft' by > > documentary director Li Yang. > > > > It is a story of two coal miners who deliberately kill their fellow > > workers to extort money from corrupt unregulated mines. Whilst possibly > > far fetched it is still all filmed on location and gives a good feel > > for safety standards. As expected it was banned by the Chinese > > government! > > > > James > > MineARC Systems America > > www.minearc.com > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Novidade no Yahoo! Mail: receba alertas de novas mensagens no seu celular. Registre seu aparelho agora! >
ELKHORN CITY, Ky. - A miner died Saturday in eastern Kentucky after a vehicle mishap, the 15th mine fatality this year, an official said.
Tony Swieney, 44, a section foreman, was dragging a large electrical cable behind a motorized coal scoop at the McCoy Elkhorn Coal Co. No. 23 mine near Ashcamp in Pike County, said Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing. The plug end was wrapped around a pole of the scoop canopy. It appears the cable became snagged, the plug end whipped loose from the pole, and Swieney was hit in the head, Wolfe said.
Swieney was conscious but not communicating when he was brought out of the mine and died enroute to a hospital, Wolfe said.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
The deaths of 12 miners in January at West Virginia's Sago coal mine is just one example of how this occupation is commonly equated with destruction and death.
And it's hardly the worst. On April 26, 1942, more than 1,500 Chinese were killed in a coal-dust explosion in Honkeiko, Manchuria.
But the notion of what constitutes a disaster, as always, is relative. The grief borne by the family and friends of the 91 miners who were killed in Kellogg's May 2, 1972, Sunshine Mine disaster go far beyond the sparse details of headline-speak.
In his book "The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine" – which is the November reading selection for The Spokesman-Review Book Club – Olalla, Wash., author Gregg Olsen reveals just about everything anyone would want to know about the disaster.
Except maybe the root cause.
What happened is clear enough. Smoke began pouring through the tunnels and shafts of the Sunshine, which extended a mile or more down at its deepest.
At first the problem seemed minor. After all, this wasn't some West Virginia coal mine. This was hard rock, shored up by timber that was kept soaked as a means of cutting the heat that, Olsen wrote, "felt like being in Panama in the middle of August." What was there to burn?
Well, something, apparently. Because the problem eventually grew serious, and carbon monoxide and other hot, poisonous gases began to spread. A cluster of mistakes, ranging from bad management to lax safety standards, exacerbated things.
It took more than a week for the death count to be tallied: 93 miners in all had been trapped. Two walked away.
And those two survivors, Ron Flory and Tom Wilkinson, weren't rescued until May 10.
Through four years of research, he spoke to more than 200 people and pored over public records, newspaper accounts, family correspondence and anyplace else he could find information. He learned enough about mining to put the reader right in the hellish atmosphere that allowed the men who worked the Sunshine the chance to make a good salary they may not have found anywhere else. But such men knew the dangers they faced.
"In the battle being waged by men with jackleg drills against the fractured and folded metamorphic world of the underground, men frequently lost," Olsen writes. "Every man knew there was no guarantee he'd ever see daylight again."
And the dangers don't involve just the chance of falling down a deep shaft, getting chewed by a rock blast or crushed by a cave-in.
Olsen describes miners chugging pickle juice to avoid the cramping caused by heat, the indigestion that had one miner eating "Rolaids like Beer Nuts" and the "omnipresent dust" left after blasting that ensured "more than one old miner ended his days with an oxygen canister, a metal mongrel trailing on a leash with every step."
A COAL mine blast killed 17 workers and trapped 30 others in north China's Shanxi Province yesterday - the country's third mining disaster in three straight days.
Colliery explosions on Friday and Saturday killed 15 men in Shanxi and in Jilin Province in the northeast.
Yesterday's explosion occurred at 11am at the Jiaojiazhai Coal Mine in Xuangang Town, media reported, citing the provincial work safety watchdog.
The mine belongs to the Xuangang Co under the Datong Coal Mine Group Co in Xinzhou, a city about 80 kilometers north of the provincial capital Taiyuan.
An investigation into the cause of the blast continued last night.
In Shanxi's Linxian County, eight men were killed as mining explosives were set off unexpectedly at a colliery on Friday. Linxian is about 200 kilometers west of Taiyuan.
Fifteen men were underground when the blast rocked a dredging platform.
Three of the miners escaped. Rescuers found 11 workers, five of whom were dead. Three others died later in hospital.
One miner remained missing last night, according to the rescue headquarters.
In Jilin, 17 men were working in a private coal mine in Helong City about 8:20am on Saturday when gas ignited.
Ten of the miners escaped quickly, but the others, who were working at a different site, were trapped.
The victims were found dead when rescuers reached them six hours later 600 meters underground. The Fudong Town mine, which is near the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, produces about 30,000 tons of the fuel a year.
Meanwhile, doctors in China's northwestern Gansu Province put four miners on the critical list Saturday after they suffered burns in a gas blast at the Weijiadi Coal Mine on Tuesday. The blast killed 29 miners and injured 19.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Most mining deaths tied to lack of compliance with safety rules
Kentucky.com - Lexington, KY, USA
Associated Press
November 5, 2006
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Most of the fatalities in the nation's coal mines in the last decade resulted from mine operators' failure to comply with safety rules, an analysis by the Sunday Gazette-Mail shows.
The newspaper examined federal records of the deaths of 320 coal miners in 297 accidents nationwide between 1996 and 2005. Nearly nine out of 10 fatalities could have been avoided if mine operators had complied with safety rules, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Mine operators failed to perform, or incorrectly performed, required safety checks in nearly one-fourth of the mining deaths during the period. Twenty-one percent of the fatalities resulted from violations of roof control, mine ventilation or other required safety plans.
Mining equipment that was not maintained in safe working condition was involved in more than 25 percent of the fatal accidents. Miners received inadequate training or no training in more than 20 percent of the accidents, the newspaper reported.
"We haven't invented new ways to kill people," said Davitt McAteer, who was director of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration during the Clinton administration. "People are dying because we haven't kept up with particular statutes and rules."
Richard Stickler, the new MSHA chief, said earlier this year during his confirmation hearing that most mining deaths result from violations.
"This is really an outlaw industry," said Tony Oppegard, a mine safety expert and former regulator from Kentucky.
During the same period, the median penalty paid by coal companies for a miner's death was $250, the Sunday Gazette-Mail reported.
Mine safety problems entered the national spotlight this year after an explosion at the Sago Mine killed 12 miners and a blast at an eastern Kentucky mine killed five miners. But 286 of the 320 deaths that occurred during the last decade were single fatalities involving equipment or collapsed mine roofs, the newspaper reported.
The [coal] industry's death toll this year is 44, the highest since 1995 when 47 miners were killed. Twenty-two of those deaths occurred in West Virginia. [There have been 23 deaths at metal and nonmetal mines.]
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Update: 17 killed, 30 trapped in coal mine gas blast in N. China
(Xinhua) Updated: 2006-11-06 07:19
TAIYUAN -- Seventeen miners have been confirmed dead and another 30 were trapped in a gas explosion Sunday at a coal mine in North China's Shanxi Province.
The accident occurred at 11 a.m. in the Jiaojiazhai Coal Mine of Xuangang Company under Datong Coal Mine Group in Xinzhou, a central-north city of Shanxi Province, officials with the provincial administration of coal mine safety told Xinhua.
Initial investigations suggest that gas accumulated and exploded after exhaust fans stopped working due to power failure.
Li Yanjun, head of the rescue team of Datong Coal Mine Group, said his team went down to the mine at 2 p.m. and searched all the tunnels that they could reach to recover the 17 bodies.
However, the rescuers were still 400-500 meters away from the explosion site since the explosion has caused a cave-in in the mine.
Senior work safety officials with the Shanxi provincial government have arrived at the site to guide rescue operation.
The rescuers are still searching for the trapped, an official said.
All the victims are miners of the Datong Coal Mine Group, he added.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Workers' Comp for W. Va.'s Sago Mine Families at $10 Million
Insurance Journal - San Diego, CA, USA
November 6, 2006
West Virginia's workers' compensation insurer may have to spend nearly $4 million more than planned on benefits for the families involved in January's Sago Mine disaster.
BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. had set aside $7.1 million early in the year, but now estimates it could have to pay as much as $10.8 million to survivor Randal McCloy Jr. and the families of 12 men who died after an explosion and prolonged entrapment.
BrickStreet took over the injured-workers program on Jan. 1 as the state privatized its financially troubled system.
BrickStreet initially planned to follow a 2004 state policy and pay benefits to miners' spouses until the date when the deceased would have reached age 70. In April, however, Gov. Joe Manchin decided benefits should continue until the spouse dies or remarries.
The Sago miners who died ranged in age from 28 to 61.
A June 30 financial statement provided this week to The Charleston Daily Mail includes the revised figures. BrickStreet Chief Financial Officer Chris Howat also said that administering the benefits will likely cost the agency about $300,000 in coming years.
"That's what workers' compensation insurance is for — to cover tragedies such as that,'' said President Greg Burton. "We want to help those families as much as we can.''
Privacy rules prohibit the agency from disclosing specific benefit payments.
BrickStreet is the state's exclusive worker injury insurer until mid-2008, when other private insurers can begin selling coverage.
While it has policies to protect against huge losses from a catastrophic event, it also has a $10 million deductible, Howat said. That means it won't be reimbursed by its own insurers until benefits exceed that level.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Fighting chance: Miners should let the MSHA chief prove himself
Monday, November 06, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Editorial
President Bush thumbed his nose at Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who represent large coal-producing states, and at the United Mine Workers of America, who have grieved the deaths of 43 miners this year.
In what looks like spite, Mr. Bush gave Richard E. Stickler a recess appointment as director of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. The UMWA had opposed the appointment of a man who'd spent 30 years as a coal company executive. Senators had blocked Mr. Stickler's ascent.
So when Congress recessed this fall, the president gave Mr. Stickler the title without congressional approval. That means he's got the job until late 2007.
A recess appointment couldn't have been more symbolically appropriate since critics believe MSHA has been in recess since Mr. Bush took office, resulting in twice as many deaths this year as last. Ultimately, though, it may be the Bush administration, ever the non-enforcer of tough regulations on industry, that will look back and wonder if it got this appointment right.
Mr. Stickler is serious about mine safety. He wasn't playing when he was director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Deep Mine Safety from March 1997 to July 2003. And he's got personal reasons to work hard on it.
He watched his grandfather die of black lung. His father was injured in a mine roof collapse. Mr. Stickler paid his way through Fairmont State College by working as a UMWA miner. Rocks from cave-ins have pelted his thighs. Now 62, he was diagnosed with first-stage black lung at 30.
He does not calculate a value for pain or loss of life. Even without that, he believes operating an unsafe mine is financially stupid. Consider, he says, what happens to a company when workers die. Its reputation is damaged. It faces fines and lawsuits. It'll pay untold workers compensation and medical costs. It'll suffer lost productivity while closed.
This comes from an engineer who managed 10 mines in two states. He knows his stuff. And when he took over the deep-mine safety program in Pennsylvania, he proved it.
In the six years he served, 10 miners died underground, including one in 1997 before he started and one in 2004 after he left. In the six years before that, 19 died underground. That might be explained by the fact that there were 30 percent fewer miners working during Mr. Stickler's half-dozen years; but there were 42 percent fewer deaths and 16 percent more coal produced.
The man who hired Mr. Stickler for the Pennsylvania job, Robert Dolence, then a deputy secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, says Mr. Stickler would have quit before overlooking a safety rule.
The UMWA and spurned senators should give Mr. Stickler a chance. He's proved before that he's a watchdog who believes in keeping miners safe.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's safety supervisor said on Monday on its website that 9,007 people were killed in 53,173 accidents nationwide in October.
The death toll was down 9.7 percent, or 964 less compared with October last year, and the accidents dropped by 9.8 percent, or 5,769 less than October of 2005, according to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).
The administration said 529 people were killed in 130 major accidents throughout China last month, down 12 percent and 12.8 percent respectively from the same month a year ago.
It said coal mine accidents saw a rapid rise since early October, and 345 people were killed in 174 such accidents in October, up 44.4 percent and 26.1 percent respectively from September.
The administration attributed the increase of coal mine accidents to relaxed management on safety in production, saying that coal mine safety was quite a "serious" problem facing the industry.
Last Sunday, 17 miners were killed in a gas explosion at a coalmine in North China's Shanxi Province, and another 30 were still missing.
SAWS Director Li Yizhong and head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Li Tiechui rushed to the site to organize rescue operations.
A gas blast at a coal mine in northeast China's Jilin Province on Saturday left seven miners dead.
On Oct. 31, a gas explosion at a coal mine in northwest China's Gansu Province claimed the lives of 29 people.
On Oct. 5, 10 miners were confirmed dead in a gas blast at a coal mine in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China.
China's mining industry is the deadliest in the world. Each year, about 6,000 people were killed in explosions, floods, collapses or other disasters.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Two more U.S. coal miners were killed over the weekend, pushing the 2006 death toll to 45 nationwide as the industry enters the dangerous winter months.
One coal miner died Saturday in an underground accident in Kentucky and another on Sunday at a huge strip mine in Arizona, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Already, more miners have been killed this year than any single year since 1995, when 47 miners were killed on the job.
West Virginia leads the nation with 22 deaths by MSHA’s count. State officials also include the July 21 death of a security guard found in a holding pond near Marmet, making the state death toll 23 miners.
That is the most in any single year since 1981, when the state agency counted 28 coal-mining deaths.
As colder weather sets in, mine safety officials are reminding operators and miners of the additional winter dangers.
“Safety principles should be followed year-round, but miners and mine operators must be more vigilant to safety precautions during wintertime when the weather increases the risk of fatal accidents,” MSHA chief Richard Stickler said in a prepared statement.
In winter months, low barometric pressure, low humidity and seasonal drying of areas in coal mines can cause methane to migrate more easily into working areas.
Also, coal dust can become drier during coal weather, further increasing the risk of an explosion.
Other winter hazards include limited visibility, icy haul roads, and unstable highwalls due to the freezing and thawing of ground.
Cold weather has also been linked to mining deaths when ice in mine shafts is not properly cleared, or when ice clogs slurry pipelines and is not safely removed.
There were no immediate indications that cold weather played a role in the two latest coal-mining deaths.
Saturday’s death in Kentucky occurred at the McCoy Elkhorn Coal Corp.’s Mine 23 near Ashcamp in Pike County.
Tony Swiney, a 44-year-old section foreman at the underground mines, was killed when he was hit by a large electrical cable plug, according to a preliminary MSHA report.
“The cable had been wrapped around the canopy post of a scoop in order to pull the cable from one location to another when the cable became fouled and unwound from the canopy post, striking the victim,” the preliminary MSHA report said.
Mine 23 has not reported any miner deaths in the last decade, according to MSHA records. But so far this year, the mine’s non-fatal injury rate is three times the national average, according to MSHA.
During an ongoing quarterly inspection that started Oct. 2, MSHA has so far cited the mine for nine safety violations, three of which concerned maintenance of “trailing cables” like the one involved in the accident.
Sunday’s death occurred at Peabody Energy subsidiary Peabody Western Coal’s Kayenta Mine in northeastern Arizona, according to MSHA records.
Few details were available. The accident was listed as an electrocution, said MSHA spokesman Dirk Fillpot.
Last year, the mine recorded a non-fatal injury rate that was three times the national average. So far this year, the mine’s rate is twice the national rate, MSHA data shows.
Two workers were killed in separate accidents in 1996 and 1997 at the Kayenta Mine, according to MSHA records.
On Sunday, a Gazette-Mail special report revealed that nine out of every 10 coal-mining deaths over the last decade could have been avoided if mine operators had complied with existing safety rules.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
CUMBERLAND, Ky. — At about 10:40 a.m. Dec. 30, 2005, in a tunnel inside H&D Mining’s Mine No. 3 in Harlan County, Ky., Bud Morris was standing next to his coal car, dumping a load into a feeder bin.
Another miner, Brandon Hatfield, drove his car toward the bin. He couldn’t see Morris, because the coal was piled a foot too high. Mine managers had added sideboards, so the car could carry a bigger load.
Hatfield’s car slammed into Morris’ back, knocking him into the bucket. Morris’ left leg was cut off 17 inches above the heel. His right knee was crushed.
“I could see that his legs had been hit bad,” recalled mine foreman James Couch. “I could see that one of them was already off.”
Gary Bentley, one of the mine owners, was called to the scene. “His body was in the car, and his leg was lying on the ground,” Bentley said later.
Bentley was listed as one of the mine’s medical technicians, but investigators found he did nothing to help Morris. Couch was listed as the other medical technician, but it turned out he was never trained for the job.
Morris bled to death, investigators concluded, because neither Bentley nor Couch put a tourniquet on his legs.
“My husband went 55 minutes without any medical treatment, and that’s uncalled for,” Stella Morris said during an August interview. “He would still be alive today if they had treated him properly.”
No television crews camped outside Mine No. 3. CNN didn’t send a crew in a satellite truck. Politicians didn’t gather with families in a nearby church.
Bud Morris died alone, like most other coal miners killed on the job in America.
Three days after the accident, on Jan. 2, Stella Morris was getting ready to bury her husband when she saw the news on TV. In West Virginia, 13 miners were trapped underground at a mine called Sago.
At the funeral that afternoon, Bud Morris’ uncle, Roger Sturgill, asked mourners to pray for the Sago miners.
Mine disasters like Sago get headlines. But far more coal miners die as Bud Morris did — alone, crushed by heavy equipment, ground up by runaway machinery, buried beneath collapsed mine roofs:
— On Aug. 15, 1996, Tracy Warren Eugene Bryant was cleaning up coal dust deep inside M&D Coal Co.’s No. 3 Mine in Floyd County, Ky. A rock that measured 11 feet long, 8 feet wide and 5 inches deep fell on him. Another miner found him 17 hours later. He saw a boot sticking out from under the rock.
On March 23, 2000, Larry Christensen fell into a water sump and drowned at Canyon Fuel Co.’s SUFCO Mine near Salina, Utah. Christensen was last seen alive at about 8 p.m. When he didn’t get home by his normal time of 2:30 a.m., his wife called the mine — at 3 a.m., 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. A search team found his body at 6 a.m.
— On March 14, 2001, Donald Clinton Cook fell into the coal conveyor at U.S. Steel Mining’s Pinnacle Preparation Plant near Pineville, Wyoming County, W.Va. His body was found 22 hours later, when it was flushed through a feeder along with 4,000 tons of raw coal.
On the day after Christmas in 2002, Dan Gray was going home after he worked all day on the “walking dragline” at Arch Coal Inc.’s Samples Mine on Cabin Creek, W.Va. He left his cell phone in the machine’s cab, and tried to go back and get it. As it walked, the dragline’s giant mechanical foot stepped on him. Co-workers didn’t notice his body until 8 1/2 hours later.
— Only 13 percent of the more than 100,000 coal miners killed in the United States in the last 100 years have died in mine disasters, which regulators define as accidents causing five or more deaths.
— Between 1996 and 2005, there were 297 fatal coal-mining accidents that killed a total of 320 workers, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration data shows.
Eleven of those accidents claimed more than one life. Thirteen miners died in the September 2001 explosion at the Jim Walters Resources mine in Alabama, and three in an explosion at CONSOL Energy’s McElroy Mine near Moundsville, W.Va., in January 2003. Nine other accidents each killed two miners.
Two hundred eighty-six of the miners killed on the job in the last decade died alone.
Most of these coal miners also died for the same reason: Their employers ignored safety rules.
Almost every single one of the 320 workers killed in U.S. coal mines in the last decade didn’t have to die, according to a six-month investigation of coal mine safety in America.
Nearly nine of every 10 fatal coal-mining accidents in the last decade could have been avoided if existing regulations had been followed, according to a Sunday Gazette-Mail study of MSHA reports.
The Gazette-Mail analysis found:
— Mine operators were faulted for not performing — or incorrectly performing — required safety checks in nearly one-fourth of the mining deaths between 1996 and 2005.
— More than one-quarter of the fatal accidents involved mining equipment that operators had not maintained in safe working condition.
— Mine operators violated roof control, mine ventilation or other required safety plans in 21 percent of the coal-mining deaths examined.
— Mine managers did not train or provided inadequate training to miners in more than 20 percent of those accidents.
“We haven’t invented new ways to kill people,” said mine safety advocate Davitt McAteer, who ran MSHA during the Clinton administration. “People are dying because we haven’t kept up with particular statutes and rules.”
Richard Stickler, a longtime coal operator appointed last month by President Bush to run MSHA, agrees.
“I believe most of the accidents that have occurred in my memory happened because the law and regulations were not followed,” Stickler said earlier this year.
The safest year on record
The day before Bud Morris was killed, the Lexington Herald-Leader published a story that praised the record-low number of coal-mining deaths in 2005.
Through Dec. 29, 21 U.S. coal miners had died on the job. The next morning, Morris became the last coal miner killed in the safest year since regulators started counting deaths more than a century ago.
Thirty-six years to the day earlier, Dec. 30, 1969, Congress passed the federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. Lawmakers were responding to the deaths of 78 miners at Consolidation Coal Co.’s No. 9 Mine near Farmington, Marion County, W.Va.
Since then, coal mines nationwide have become much safer. Death and injury rates are down. Huge disasters are rare.
Between 1969 and today, U.S. coal production has tripled, to more than 1 billion tons per year. The number of miners killed has been similarly cut, from more than 100 a year to an average of about 30 annually in the last decade.
Thirty hours into 2006, any celebration of 2005’s safety success ended for the coal industry.
At about 6:30 a.m. Jan. 2, an explosion ripped through the Sago Mine, a small underground operation in Upshur County, W.Va. One miner was killed by the blast, and 11 others suffocated before rescuers could reach them 40 hours later.
Two weeks later, two miners died in a fire at Massey Energy’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W.Va.
On May 20, five miners died in an explosion at the Darby Mine in Eastern Kentucky, making 2006 the first time in two decades that there have been two mine disasters in the same year.
Outraged lawmakers gave fiery speeches. They demanded tougher enforcement and regulatory reforms. Reporters from New York and television crews from Washington poured into coal country to interview grieving widows and write exposés on mine disasters.
No one seemed to notice a larger pattern was continuing.
At Sago, Aracoma and Darby, a total of 19 coal miners died. Through Oct. 31, another 24 coal miners have died alone — more than the total death toll in 2005.
With coal prices high, pressure is on mine managers and miners to get coal out as fast — and as cheaply — as possible. Miners and mine safety advocates worry that more miners will perish in the process.
“Safety is taking a back seat to production right now,” said Floyd Campbell, a United Mine Workers safety committee member at Foundation Coal’s Emerald Mine near Waynesburg, Pa.
James Blankenship, an Alabama coal miner and UMW representative, said, “As long as the price of coal is where it is, it’s all about production — get it out as fast as you can.”
Coal industry officials disagree. The industry “takes seriously its commitment to protect its workers,” said Bruce Watzman, a lobbyist on safety issues for the National Mining Association.
“Safety and productivity are not competing goals, but rather complementary goals,” Watzman said.
Still, the 2006 death toll has continued to 43 nationwide, the highest since 1995:
— On Feb. 1, Edmund Vance was crushed between a falling piece of mine wall and a roof bolting machine at Long Branch Energy’s No. 18 Tunnel Mine near Wharton, Boone County, W.Va.
During the previous four years, 12 other miners were injured in similar accidents at the mine. Federal investigators also found “numerous additional near misses” where company officials did not install timbers or other supports to protect miners from loose rocks in the mine walls.
— That same day, bulldozer operator Paul Moss was killed when his dozer hit a natural gas line at Massey’s Black Castle strip mine in Boone County, W.Va. Federal investigators found that Massey management had directed Moss to work in the area of a known gas line without actually locating it and marking it.
— On Feb. 16, Timothy W. Caudill was buried under a roof fall that measured 14 feet long, 3 1/2 feet wide and 9 inches thick at Perry County Coal Corp.’s HZ4-1 Mine near Hazard, Ky. Investigators found that mine managers removed part of a mine wall, then sent workers into the area without making sure the roof was still secure.
— On April 7, Robert Runyon was riding in an underground mine train when he was impaled by a 4-inch steel crossbar in the roof support at Jacob Mining Company’s No. 1 Mine in Mingo County. Investigators found that the crossbar had fallen so it was in the train’s path, and that mine managers did not conduct a thorough pre-shift safety check that would have discovered the hazard.
“This is really an outlaw industry,” said Tony Oppegard, a longtime mine safety activist and lawyer from Kentucky.
In the last 10 years, MSHA has fined coal operators more than $14 million for violations that contributed to miners’ deaths, according to a first-of-its-kind computer analysis by the Gazette-Mail.
Per violation, MSHA officials fined companies a median of $22,000, about one-third of the maximum allowed by law. For each miner killed, agency officials assessed a median fine of $4,250.
But fines are lowered or thrown out by judges. MSHA settles for less to avoid legal fights. Companies go belly up and don’t pay, or MSHA does not aggressively pursue payments. In some cases, appeals are still pending for deaths that occurred years ago.
After the deaths of 13 miners in the Jim Walter No. 5 explosion in Alabama, MSHA fined the company $435,000. A judge reduced that to $3,000, an average of $230 for each miner killed. Another appeal, by MSHA, is pending.
Overall, companies have paid $3.4 million, about one-fourth of what MSHA has sought, according to the Gazette-Mail analysis.
In cases where fines were issued and are not under appeal, coal operators have paid a median fine per miner death of $6,200.
But fines were not issued in nearly one-fourth of the cases, and decisions on fines have not been made in a few cases from 2005.
If all 320 miners’ deaths are counted, the median fine so far paid by coal operators is $250 per death.
Not learning from the past
On Feb. 6, 1986, design engineer Joseph E. Dunn and a team of other workers walked out onto the top of a 15,000-ton coal storage bin to check on repairs needed for a conveyor belt at Consolidation Coal Co.’s Loveridge No. 22 Mine at Fairview, Marion County, W.Va.
At about 11 a.m., Dunn and four other workers disappeared into a six-foot-diameter hole in the coal pile.
MSHA blamed company officials, saying they wrongly allowed workers to walk on the coal pile without ensuring that no dangerous cavities formed underneath.
A dozen years later, bulldozer operator Jessie Vance Jenkins Jr. disappeared into a void in a coal pile at another Consolidation Coal Co. operation, the Buchanan No. 1 Mine in Mavisdale, Va. Investigators said the Nov. 22, 1998, accident occurred because the company’s feeders allowed gravity to suck coal out of the pile even when the feeder was turned off.
Five months after that, on April 11, 1999, Larry Neff was killed when the dozer he was operating fell into a void in a stockpile at Massey Energy subsidiary Elk Run Coal Co.’s Chess Processing Plant in Sylvester, Boone County, W.Va. Investigators found that Massey regularly had dozer operators run their machines directly above feeders without examining the area for dangerous voids.
“We have repeated disasters, and it seems we don’t learn from them,” said Ed Harvas, a Salt Lake City lawyer who represented families of miners killed in the 1984 Wilberg Mine fire.
‘Failed to recognize the hazards’
Two days after Christmas in 2000, 46-year-old preparation plant foreman Ricky Ferris was trying to dislodge an ice clog from a slurry pipeline at Tug Valley Coal Processing in Naugatuck, Mingo County, W.Va.
When Ferris turned on a pump, the pipeline whipped in the air, hitting Ferris and sending him flying, landing face down on the impoundment.
MSHA inspectors found that Tug Valley management “failed to recognize the hazards associated with the pipeline being pressurized.” But the agency issued no citations and did not fine the company.
Instead, MSHA officials warned mine operators and miners nationwide that unclogging slurry pipelines could be dangerous and needed to be done carefully.
Four years later, Dec. 28, 2004, heavy equipment operator Earnie Williams and some other workers tried to unclog a frozen slurry line at International Coal Group’s Supreme Energy Prep Plant in Knott County, Ky.
The slurry flew out of the line, hit a metal support and ricocheted into Williams’ head.
MSHA investigators blamed the death on ICG’s failure to design a safe procedure for clearing frozen slurry pipelines. Agency officials fined the company $440.
On March 11, 1996, miners Wesley Littlepage and Rickey Bowles were cleaning up ice that had built up inside a shaft at Costain Coal’s Baker Mine in Union County, Ky. The ice fell on them, killing Littlepage.
The company had had similar problems. In October 1995, when the shaft opened, an ice fall damaged a hoist and a cage used to carry miners in and out of the mine. The same thing happened in February 1996 and on March 10, 1996, the day before Littlepage was killed.
After the death, MSHA did not cite or fine the company. Instead, agency officials issued a “safeguard order” that required the company to design a safe ice removal procedure.
On Jan. 28, 2002, Fred R. Hess, a 54-year-old preparation plant worker, was killed when a clean-coal pump blew up at CONSOL’s Island Creek VP 8 plant in Buchanan County, Va.
The pump had overheated, causing pressure to build up to unsafe levels. Twelve years earlier, the same thing happened with a different pump at the same plant. Mine managers installed heat and pressure warning alarms on most of the pumps. For some reason, they did not put an alarm on the clean-coal pump.
MSHA officials fined the company nearly $28,000, but settled for a payment of $16,650, agency computer records show. CONSOL added heat and pressure alarms to the clean-coal pump.
‘A direct tie to the fatality’
On June 4, 1998, miner Adam Justice was knocking out timbers to move a conveyor belt inside Upper Mill Mining Co.’s Bee Tree Mine at Breaks, Va. At about 1:30 p.m., a rock fell on Justice, pinning him inside a three-wheeled mine car.
Investigators found that mine managers did not check the area before Justice’s shift. If they had, investigators said, they might have seen and fixed the loose and damaged roof bolts and loose rocks.
Under federal law, mine operators must perform a variety of regular safety checks. Equipment must be examined, roof control reviewed and methane levels monitored.
But after miners are killed, inspectors frequently find that mine operators did shoddy safety checks, or ignored the requirement altogether.
In one-fourth of the mining deaths in the last 10 years, MSHA investigators found such problems.
Such violations are more than paperwork problems, said Charleston lawyer Mike Callaghan, who prosecuted mine safety cases while he was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1992 to 2001.
“If you have an electrocution, the first thing you do is go in and see if they did the electrical examinations, and they probably didn’t,” Callaghan said. “That’s a direct tie to the fatality.”
In the last 10 years, federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges in just eight of the 297 accidents that killed coal miners.
Four of those eight cases included charges concerning failure to do proper safety checks, according to a review of MSHA records and federal court files.
Two years after Adam Justice was killed, prosecutors charged Upper Mill Mining, company President Gary Horn and two other mine managers with criminal violations for not doing required mine safety checks.
In that case, prosecutors also charged Horn for violations related to the death of another miner at a different company.
On May 12, 2000, William Blankenship, a 29-year-old continuous miner operator, was crushed between his machine and a wall at Buchanan Production Co.’s Mine No. 2 near Grundy, Va.
Blankenship was using a remote control to move the mining machine to cut another section of coal. Suddenly, the machine’s boom arm swung toward Blankenship’s helper, Earnest Owens. Owens ducked, but the boom hit Blankenship and crushed him against a wall.
Investigators ruled the mine manager had not properly trained Blankenship to use the remote control unit.
In recent years, coal industry officials have frequently complained about a shortage of experienced, trained coal miners. At the same time, federal inspectors are finding that lax training — or lack of any training at all — is to blame for mining deaths.
Blankenship was one of 64 miners who died during the last decade at least in part because the company he worked for had not properly trained him.
‘With every breath in my body’
Just before the 6 o’clock news Jan. 21, 2006, then-state mine safety Director Doug Conaway took the podium to confirm the worst. The two miners missing in the fire at Massey’s Aracoma Mine in Logan County had been found. Rescuers were too late. Ellery Hatfield and Donald Bragg were dead.
Gov. Joe Manchin announced he would introduce three bills he said would make West Virginia’s coal mines the safest in the country.
“This has got to stop, and it’s going to stop — if I’ve got anything to do with it — with every breath in my body,” said Manchin, who lost an uncle in the 1968 Farmington disaster.
Two days later, lawmakers unanimously approved Manchin’s landmark plan to require rapid rescue response to mine emergencies, mandate electronic tracking of miner locations underground, and force coal companies to provide additional emergency oxygen underground. Other states and the federal government have followed with similar mine rescue initiatives.
But in the 10 months since Sago and Aracoma, Manchin has not acted on other promises or proposals to prevent mine accidents.
The governor has never introduced his promised legislation to ban the use of conveyor belt tunnels to bring fresh air into underground mines. Critics say the practice, legalized nationwide in 2004 by the Bush administration, helps spread fires, smoke and deadly gases.
Three weeks after the Aracoma fire, Conaway, a holdover from the Wise administration, resigned as director of Manchin’s Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training to take a job with Arch Coal.
Manchin brought in West Virginia University instructor James Dean to run the office for six months. The governor asked Dean for a complete review of the agency and proposals to make it better.
In early August, just before he left, Dean asked Manchin to hire more inspectors and provide money to improve the pay of existing employees.
On Aug. 31, Manchin appointed Ron Wooten, a former CONSOL Energy safety executive, to the state mine safety post. At the time, Manchin said he wanted Wooten to review Dean’s proposals before acting on them.
Last week, Wooten said he has not finished his review.
“We are certainly studying them,” Wooten said in an interview. “They’re not on a shelf gathering dust.”
During the summer, the Manchin administration wasted no time making a major change in another key state mine safety rule.
In late July, the mine safety office finalized a rule that reduces the amount of training miners must receive to be certified to perform electrical work in underground mines.
Previously, state rules required electricians to take part in a 12-month apprentice program. The new rule, which still needs legislative approval, allows “alternative electrical training programs” of less than 12 months.
Peabody Coal and the West Virginia Coal Association supported the proposal. Local officials from the United Mine Workers, the UMW’s national safety director, and several coal companies opposed it.
“Somebody always wants to go backwards on our safety,” Danny McCoy, a safety committee member at Mechanical Mines said at a July public hearing.
Bud and Stella
In August 2005, Bud and Stella Morris were living together in Cumberland, Ky., a town of about 2,600 not far from the Virginia border.
Both had been through failed marriages. Bud had a son from his previous relationship, and despite being told by doctors she couldn’t have kids, Stella was pregnant with their “miracle baby.”
On Aug. 3, word spread about a terrible mining accident at Stillhouse Mining’s Mine No. 1, just down the road from where Bud worked at H&D Mining. Stella was worried. Her friend Claudia Cole’s husband, Russell, worked for Stillhouse. So Bud and Stella drove down to the mine site to find out what had happened. It was a roof fall, they learned. Two miners were missing. One of them was Russell Cole.
At about 9:30 that night, Cole and another miner, Brandon Wilder, were on a crew that was “pulling pillars” that were left during previous mining to hold up the mine roof. The roof fell in on them. It took rescuers three days to dig Russell Cole’s body out.
‘He didn’t think it was safe’
Landen Jaycob Morris was born to Bud and Stella in September.
A few months later, Dec. 30, Stella was just getting into the shower. Bud had left for work about 6 a.m. At about 2 p.m., she would leave for her job at a local convenience store.
The phone rang. It was James H. Hurley, president of H&D Mining.
“Stella, Bud got his legs cut off,” she remembers him saying. Stella rushed to the hospital, 20 miles away in Harlan.
“The doctor came out and said they were doing all they could,” she remembered. “Five minutes later, the doctor came back and said that he was gone.”
Bud and Stella Morris were both 29 years old when he died. Bud had worked in the mines for about five years. Before that, he worked in a factory and at a garage. But the mine paid better.
“He had some back problems, and they were getting worse,” she recalled. “He wanted out. He didn’t think it was safe.”
Today, Stella Morris is back at work. Family members help her care for her son.
“I talk to him every day about his dad, and I’ll do that the rest of my life.”
Stella wishes the company had called her sooner, so she could have gotten to the hospital before Bud died — so he wouldn’t have had to die alone.
“I could have been there before he died, just to tell him I loved him.”
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348-1702.
How we did this story
When an explosion ripped through the Sago Mine on Jan. 2, killing 12 workers, coal mine safety again became a national issue.
The Sunday Gazette-Mail wanted to take a broader look, to examine the daily dangers faced by the 79,000 coal miners who help provide more than half of the nation’s electricity.
Reporter Ken Ward Jr. had been covering mine safety on and off for much of his 15 years at the newspaper. And he had recently been awarded a six-month fellowship by the Alicia Patterson Foundation to study the coal industry.
Under the direction of City Editor Robert J. Byers, Ward narrowed the focus of his fellowship to a project on coal mine safety. This story, the first in a series of special reports, is the result of that work.
Since April, Ward has traveled the coalfields of West Virginia and visited mining areas in Alabama, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, conducting more than 100 interviews with coal miners, mine operators, mine safety experts, government inspectors and elected officials.
Ward has filed more than two dozen public records requests, and analyzed numerous government computer databases that detail mine safety inspections and enforcement.
Also, Ward examined federal investigation reports concerning the deaths of 320 miners over the last decade, and built his own database to study the findings. Ward also reviewed federal investigation reports from more than two dozen major coal-mining disasters dating back to 1970, and studied dozens of technical papers about mine safety issues.
Future stories will examine, among other issues, the unique dangers faced by strip-mine workers, the controversial emergency breathing devices carried by all coal miners, and the oversight record of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
YUANPING, Shanxi, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers on Monday were still searching for the 30 miners trapped in a coal mine explosion which had claimed 17 lives in north China's Shanxi Province on Sunday.
About 90 rescuers in eight teams went down more than 300 meters to search for the trapped miners, while others were busy moving exhaust fans, cables, timber and other materials into the mine.
Officials with the rescue headquarters said the resumption of ventilation and power supply is vital for rescue operation.
Initial investigations suggest that human errors were blamed for the fatal accident.
The mine should have been evacuated since gas had accumulated to a dangerous level on Sunday morning after exhaust fans stopped working due to power failure. However, power supply resumed without safety measures and caused the explosion.
According to the rescue headquarters, 393 workers were working in the mine when the blast took place, and 346 miners escaped.
The accident occurred at 11 a.m. Sunday in the Jiaojiazhai Coal Mine of Xuangang Company under Datong Coal Mine Group, in Xinzhou, a central-north city of Shanxi Province.
All the victims are miners of Datong Coal Mine Group.
The Shanxi government on Monday ordered all the coal mines in the coal-rich province to operate in accord with work safety regulations, saying any one who violate regulations will be punished.
Director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) Li Yizhong and head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Li Tiechui rushed to the site to organize rescue operations.
The SAWS said Monday that coal mine accidents saw a rapid rise since early October, and 345 people were killed in 174 such accidents in October, up 44.4 percent and 26.1 percent respectively from September.
The administration attributed the increase of coal mine accidents to relaxed management on safety in production, saying that coal mine safety was quite a "serious" problem threatening the industry.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
Rescue goes on despite slim chance for trapped miners
YUANPING, Shanxi, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Rescue operations at a coal mine in north China's Shanxi Province continued on Tuesday despite 28 trapped miners having a slim chance to survive three days after a fatal gas explosion.
The death toll from the explosion at the Jiaojiazhai Coal Mine rose to 19 Tuesday after two more bodies were recovered, according to rescuers.
Director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) Li Yizhong, who is organizing rescue operations at the mine, said Tuesday that the trapped miners, live or dead, must be found despite having a slim chance to survive.
The accident occurred at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday in the Jiaojiazhai Coal Mine of Xuangang Company under Datong Coal Mine Group in Xinzhou, a central-north city of Shanxi Province.
Rescue efforts have been hindered by cave-ins and flooding caused by the gas blast. Rescuers are trying to dig a new tunnel to reach the trapped miners and have installed pumps to pump out flood water, according to officials from the rescue headquarters.
The headquarters expected the concentration of gas in the mine to be at a normal level at 2 a.m. Wednesday, enabling rescuers to go further in tunnels to search the trapped.
___________________________________________________________ United States Mine Rescue Association www.usmra.com
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