Company blames lightning for deadly Sago mine blast

Two and a half months after an explosion trapped and killed 12 men inside the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, Virginia, their colleagues headed back underground today and restarted the coal mining operation once again.

The explosion had caught the first crews returning to work after the New Year’s holiday on January 2. When searchers reached the miners two days later, only one man was still alive.

Although it cannot fully explain what happened, International Coal Group Inc. officials said yesterday they believe electricity from above – likely a lightning strike – found some conduit into the earth and sparked methane gas that had accumulated in a sealed-off chamber.

It was “unpredictable and highly unusual” and ordinarily hard to prove, said CEO Ben Hatfield.

ICG’s investigation of the blast found what Hatfield believes is compelling evidence from three different clocks in three different locations.

Professional weather watchers confirmed an unusually large lightning strike near the mine early that morning, he said. Some 70 miles away in Morgantown, a US Geological Survey station confirmed a seismic event at Sago. And deep inside the mine, atmospheric alarms sounded, signalling the carbon monoxide that comes with fires and explosions.

The explosion killed one miner immediately and trapped the crew some 260 feet underground for more than 41 hours. By the time rescue teams reached them, all but one had perished in the poisoned air.

The lone survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., was in a coma for weeks and is still recovering from brain damage, but he was well enough yesterday to leave his Morgantown rehabilitation hospital for a short trip home to Simpson. He has movement in most of his body and is learning to speak again.

Hatfield said ICG’s investigation is not the final word on the explosion but he is confident a joint federal-state investigation will reach a similar conclusion.

Although the Mine Safety and Health Administration had cited the mine for 208 violations in the months leading up to the accident, Hatfield said the company’s findings show that none of those violations was related to the blast.

The mine was shut down to allow the dangerous gasses to clear out and then for the investigation and safety inspections. Today, miners returned to work and coal was moving out of the mine within a few hours.

ICG bought the Sago Mine near Buckhannon from bankrupt Anker West Virginia Mining Co. last March. The operation has been producing coal since September 1999 and had 145 employees at the time of the accident.