Officials ‘discouraged’ by air quality in exploded mine

A MINING company executive said officials are “very discouraged” by air quality tests in the mine where 13 workers are trapped, and planned to drill a third hole to take additional air samples.

Ben Hatfield, chief executive officer of mine owner International Coal Group Inc said tests found that carbon monoxide levels far exceed federal regulatory limits in the Sago Mine 24 hours after an explosion.

Mr Hatfield made the comments after rescuers trying to reach the miners successfully punched a hole into the mine early yesterday. A camera was inserted into the 15.8cm hole to look for signs of life.

Drilling crews pounded on steel pipe and listened for a response in the section of the mine where the trapped miners were believed to be located, Mr Hatfield said.

Mr Hatfield said the trapped miners could still be alive.

“They could be in another location or they could be barricaded somewhere,” Mr Hatfield told reporters.

“We’re still hoping for that miracle as you know,” West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin told ABC’s Good Morning America.

Some family members, who had been optimistic and talkative earlier, retreated into a nearby church without making any comments.

Several hundred family members and friends waited for word on the miners, including Daniel Merideth, the son-in-law of trapped miner Alby Martin Bennett, who had planned to retire this year.

“Every day he would come home and pray for who was going in,” said Mr Merideth.

“Right now he is probably in there witnessing to people. He would be organising and praying.”

The blast occurred at about 6.40am on Monday, trapping the miners 260 feet below the surface of the mine, located about 100 miles north-east of Charleston.

The rescue teams entered the mine more than 11 hours after the blast. They were kept out of the mine for most of the day because of dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide.

Earlier yesterday, rescuers had penetrated more than 9,000 feet into the Sago coal mine but were ordered to return to the surface for safety reasons before the drilling crew punched into the mine.

The miners carry individual air purifying systems that would give them up to seven hours of clean air, said Tim McGee, who works at the mine and was among those at the Sago Baptist Church. They do not carry oxygen tanks, he said.

Gene Kitts, a senior vice president for International Coal Group, said the miners each had between three and 30 years experience and are trained to try to tap on roots, waterlines, anything possible, to alert rescuers of their location.

“This is not a rookie crew underground,” Mr Kitts said. “So we’re just trusting that their training and their mining instincts have kicked in immediately.

“We will expect to be there quick enough so that food, water, those sorts of issues probably will not come into play,” Mr Kitts said.