Two miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine that had caught fire were found dead on Saturday, and officials, angered also by 12 other mine deaths this month, vowed to make the industry safer. "We found the two miners that we were looking for for the past 40-some hours. ... Unfortunately, we don't have a positive outcome," said Doug Conaway, West Virginia's mine safety chief.

"We did find the two miners near the fire area that was on the (conveyor) belt line," he said. "It appears right now that the two miners were trying to make a valiant effort. They were together trying to get outside and they encountered pretty high temperatures and high (carbon monoxide) levels."

The accident was the second this month at an Appalachian mountain coal mine to claim workers' lives. Three weeks ago, 12 men perished at the Sago Mine near Tallmansville in central West Virginia.

Government officials, still seething over the Sago tragedy that is now under investigation, pledged on Saturday to tighten rules that protect workers toiling in vast coal mines sometimes 1,000 feet underground.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said he would introduce legislation that would ensure rescue teams get to accident scenes quicker, a second bill to employ "existing technology" to electronically track miners, and a third to mandate that reserve oxygen stations be established in mines.

"If I have anything to do with it, if I am able with every breath in my body to make the changes that need to be made ... (I'll) make sure that every brave miner, every brave worker in this state knows they're in the safest conditions humanly possible," he said.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat, told a news conference: "The status quo is unacceptable."

"It's unfortunate that every coal mine health and safety law on the books today is written with the blood of coal miners. It takes a tragedy, unfortunately, to toughen these laws and to pass them in the first place."

U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller called the deaths at both the Sago and Aracoma mines unnecessary, and said: "There is a laxness about coal safety consciousness."

Rescuers had been searching for the men for almost two days at the Aracoma Mine in Melville, West Virginia, where a fire broke out late on Thursday afternoon. Nineteen miners escaped the fire, which mine officials finally contained on Saturday.

The blaze had resisted firefighting efforts and spread from mine equipment into the coal seam itself, further complicating efforts hampered by thick smoke and roof collapses.

Gov. Manchin said in a televised news conference the two missing men had begun work at the Aracoma Mine at the same time five years ago.

He identified them as Don Bragg, 33, a married father of two from Accoville, West Virginia, and Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield, 47, a married father of four from Simon, West Virginia.

The mine is owned by Aracoma Coal Co., a subsidiary of Richmond, Virginia-based Massey Energy Co., according to a federal mine database.

Widows from the Sago tragedy had come to the Aracoma Mine to lend their support. The only survivor of the Sago blast, 26-year-old Randal McCloy, has been hospitalized since, having survived nearly 42 hours underground following the blast.

"I've gone through, along with our senators and our congressmen and all the people over the last 3 weeks, over 85 hours I've been in churches with families," said Manchin. "The suffering, the pain that everyone has endured is more than any state should have to go through."

Source: Reuters

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed