US mine blast kills 25

Twenty-five workers have been killed and at least four are unaccounted for after an explosion rocked a remote coal mine in the US.

Twenty-five workers have been killed in an explosion at a remote coal mine in the US which has a history of safety problems.

At least four others were still missing more than 1,000ft underground early today after the blast in southern West Virginia, the worst US mine disaster since 1984.

Rescuers had been making their way to the area where the miners were believed to be trapped at Massey Energy’s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine, where the explosion happened at around 3pm yesterday (7pm Irish time).

However, safety officials said at a news conference that the search had been suspended because rising methane gas levels in the mine made it a high risk for another blast.

Earlier, Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said officials hoped some of the missing had survived the initial blast and were able to reach airtight chambers stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for them to live for four days. However, rescue teams made it to one of two nearby shelters and it was empty. The gas levels prevented them from reaching the second.

Massey Energy and safety officials confirmed that 25 bodies had been found. The death toll had risen from seven earlier in the day to 12 at about midnight. A total of 29 miners were in the area when the blast happened, he said.

“It does not appear that any of the individuals made it to a rescue chamber,” Mr Stricklin told the news conference. “The situation is dire.”

State mining director Ron Wooten said that, although the chances of reaching the four still missing looked slim, rescuers would not give up.

“We haven’t given up hope at all,” he said.

It was the worst mine disaster since 1984 when 27 were killed by a fire at Emery Mining’s mine in Orangeville, Utah.

Although the cause of the blast was not known, the operation about 30 miles (50km) south of Charleston has a history of violations for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane gas, safety officials said.

Miners were leaving on a vehicle which takes them in and out of the mine’s long shaft when a crew ahead of them felt a blast of air and went back to investigate, Mr Stricklin said.

They found nine workers, seven of whom were dead. Others were hurt or missing about a mile and a half (2.4km) inside the mine.

Massey Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Virginia, has 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, south-west Virginia and Tennessee, according to the company’s website. It ranks among the top five US coal producers and is among the industry’s most profitable. It has a patchy safety record.

In the past year, federal inspectors have fined the company more than $382,000 (€284,000) for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at Upper Big Branch, which is run by subsidiary Performance Coal. The violations also cover failing to follow the plan, allowing combustible coal dust to pile up, and having improper firefighting equipment.

The mine has had three other fatalities in the last dozen years.

Methane is one of the great dangers of coal mining, and federal records say the Eagle coal seam releases up to two million cubic feet (0.06 million cubic meters) of methane gas into the Upper Big Branch mine every 24 hours, which is a large amount, said Dennis O’Dell, health and safety director for the United Mine Workers labour union.

The colourless, odourless gas is often sold to American consumers to heat homes and cook meals. In mines, giant fans are used to keep methane concentrations below certain levels. If concentrations are allowed to build up, the gas can explode with a spark roughly similar to the static charge created by walking across a carpet in winter, as at the Sago mine, also in West Virginia, where 12 were killed in 2006.

Since then, federal and state regulators have required mine operators to store extra oxygen supplies. Upper Big Branch uses containers which can generate about an hour of breathable air, and all miners carry a container on their belts besides the stockpiles inside the mine.

Rescuers trying to reach the trapped miners had found evidence that some workers took emergency oxygen supplies from a cache in the mine, Mr Stricklin said.

West Virginia requires all underground mines to have wireless communications and tracking systems designed to survive explosions and other disasters. However, Mr Stricklin said much of the network near the missing men was probably destroyed in the explosion.

The mine, which cannot be seen from the road, has 19 openings and roughly 7ft (2m) ceilings. Inside, it is criss-crossed by railway tracks used for hauling people and equipment. It is located in a mine-laced swath of Raleigh and Boone counties which is the heart of West Virginia’s coal country.

The seam produced 1.2 million tons of coal in 2009, according to the mine safety agency, and has about 200 employees, most of whom work underground on different shifts.

In each of the last three years, Massey has had multiple operations cited by MSHA as repeat violators of safety and health rules and ordered to improve their conditions. Upper Big Branch was not one of them.

Last year, the number of miners killed on the job in the US fell for a second straight year to 34, the fewest since officials began keeping records nearly a century ago. That was down from the previous low of 52 in 2008.