13 trapped underground after coal mine blast

Thirteen coal miners in West Virginia remained trapped 260 feet below ground today, after an explosion that may have been triggered by lightning.

Rescuers went in to find them after waiting almost 12 agonising hours for dangerous gases to clear.

The condition of the miners was not immediately known. Four co-workers tried to reach them but were stopped by a wall of debris, and yesterday’s blast knocked out the mine’s communication equipment, preventing authorities from contacting the miners.

It was not known how much air they had or how big a space they were in. The miners had air-purifying equipment but no oxygen tanks, a co-worker said.

“You just have to hope that the explosions weren’t of the magnitude that was horrific from the beginning,” Joe Manchin, governor of the nation’s number two coal-producing state, told CNN.

He added: “There’s always that hope and chance that they were able to go to part of the mine that still had safe air.”

The first of eight search-and-rescue teams entered the Sago Mine, more than 11 hours after the blast trapped the miners. Rescue crews were kept out of the mine for most of the day while dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide – a by-product of combustion – were vented through holes drilled into the ground.

Company chiefs believe the trapped miners were about two miles inside the mine, about 260 feet underground. The crew entered the mine on foot for fear of sparking another explosion.

The Government’s Mine Safety and Health Administration sent a rescue robot to the mine, about 100 miles north east of Charleston.

Some 200 co-workers and relatives of those trapped gathered at the Sago Baptist Church, across the road from the mine.

Anna McCloy said her husband, Randall, 27, was among those missing. She said he had worked at the mine for three years “but was looking to get out. It was too dangerous”.

Coal mine explosions are typically caused by build-ups of naturally occurring methane gas and the danger increases in the winter months, when the barometric pressure can release the odourless, colourless and highly-flammable gas.

Manchin’s spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said the blast may have been sparked by lightning from severe thunderstorms. But Roger Nicholson, general counsel for the mine’s owner, International Coal Group, said that it was not clear what caused the blast and that there was no indication it was methane-related.

The blast happened between 6am and 6.30am local time as the first shift of miners entered to resume production following the Christmas holiday, Ramsburg said.

“As they were heading in, the car in the back either heard or felt some type of explosion. They headed back out. The first car never made it back out.”

Thirteen miners were trapped, the coal company said. Four co-workers tried to reach the missing miners but “came to a wall” of debris, said Steve Milligan, deputy director of Upshur County’s Office of Emergency Management.

Samantha Lewis, whose 28-year-old husband David was among those trapped, said he worked the mines so that he could be home every night to take care of their three daughters while she worked on a master’s degree in health care administration.

“This was a good way to make a living until we could find something else,” said Lewis, whose father, grandfather and stepfather also worked in the mines. “It’s just a way of life. Unless you’re a coal miner or you have a college degree, you don’t make any money.”

Miners who work in the mine 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 church. They did not carry oxygen tanks, he said.

ICG acquired the Sago Mine last March when it bought Anker West Virginia Mining, which had been in bankruptcy. In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, the Sago Mine produced about 397,000 tons of coal.

Federal inspectors cited the mine for 46 alleged breaches of health and safety rules during an 11-week review that ended on December 22, according to records. In all, it received 208 citations from MSHA during 2005, up from 68 in 2004.

The state Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training issued 144 notices of violation against the mine in 2005, up from 74 the year before.