West Virginia mine disaster survivor details ordeal

Trapped deep below ground by poisonous gases, the Sago miners realised at least four of their air packs did not work and were forced to share the devices as they desperately pounded away with a sledgehammer in hopes of letting rescuers know where to find them.

Then, resigned to their fate, they recited a “sinner’s prayer,” scrawled farewell notes to their loved ones, and succumbed, one after another, some as if drifting off to sleep.

“As my trapped co-workers lost consciousness one by one, the room grew still and I continued to sit and wait, unable to do much else,” the sole survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., wrote to his co-workers’ families in a letter.

McCloy’s two-page typed letter offered the most detailed account yet of what happened in the mine after the January 2 explosion in West Virginia, along with criticism that the mine’s operator, International Coal Group Inc., let them down.

The blast killed one miner and spread carbon monoxide that slowly asphyxiated 11 other men 260 feet below ground as they waited in the farthest reaches of the mine to be rescued.

McCloy spokeswoman Aly Goodwin Gregg said today that McCloy’s letter was given to the families confidentially, and he would not comment further. ICG did not immediately return a call for comment.

The air packs – referred to in the letter as “rescuers” – are intended to give each miner about an hour’s worth of oxygen while they escape or find a pocket of clean air. But at least four of the devices did not function, McCloy said.

“There were not enough rescuers to go around,” McCloy said. He said he shared his air pack with one man, and three other miners sought help from others.

The miners returned to their shuttle car in hopes of escaping along the track but had to abandon their efforts because of bad air. They then retreated, hung a curtain to keep out the poisonous gases, and tried to signal their location by beating on the mine bolts and plates.

“We found a sledgehammer, and for a long time, we took turns pounding away,” McCloy wrote.

“We had to take off the rescuers in order to hammer as hard as we could. This effort caused us to breathe much harder. We never heard a responsive blast or shot from the surface.”