W.Va. Congressman Promises Mine Blast Probe

MONTCOAL, W.Va. (CBS News) ―
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A section on the Upper Big Branch Mine on April 6, 2010 in Montcoal, West Virginia. 25 miners have been killed during an explosion at the Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch Coal Mine on Monday April 5.
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(4/6/2010)
West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall says there will be a thorough investigation into what caused a mine explosion that has killed 25 people.

Rahall said at a news conference Tuesday that if new laws need to be written, he's ready to do it. Rahall says every mine safety law on the books has been written with coal miners' blood following a tragedy.

Rahall represents the area that includes Massey Energy Co.'s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine where the explosion occurred. Four miners are still missing.

An explosion rocked a remote coal mine with a history of safety problems, killing 25 workers and trapping at least 4 others thousands of feet underground in the worst U.S. mine disaster since 2006.

Rescuers were forced to halt their effort to reach the area where the miners were believed trapped at Massey Energy Co.'s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine, where the blast occurred around 3 p.m. Monday, according to a statement from the mining company.

"Rescue efforts will resume as soon as conditions allow," said Massey's statement.

CBS "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith reports Tuesday from the scene of the disaster that, although the cause of the blast is yet to be confirmed, a buildup of highly flammable methane gas is suspected - the same odorless killer which forced the pause in rescue operations Monday night.

"Tonight we mourn the deaths of our members at Massey Energy," said Massey CEO Don Blankenship. "I want to offer my condolences to the miners' families who lost loved ones at Upper Big Branch. And I want to thank the rescue teams and the Massey members who continue to work hard on behalf of our miners and their families."

Earlier, Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said officials hoped some of the missing 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 were 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," Stricklin said at a news conference. "The situation is dire."

State mining director Ron Wooten said though the situation does not seem promising to reach the four still missing, rescuers wouldn't give up.

"We haven't given up hope at all," he said.

Speaking to Smith near the mine on Tuesday morning, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin told CBS News that 14 of the bodies recovered still had not been identified, adding to the anguish of relatives awaiting news.

"You can imagine anxiety of the family members," Manchin said. He suggested the relatives try and go home and get some rest overnight, but told Smith, "I can tell you, they're not going anywhere."

Manchin said rescue efforts had resumed on the surface, with workers having begun the hours-long process of drilling down to where the miners are thought be trapped.

"Drilling has commenced," said the governor. "We're going thru 1,100 feet."

At the Marsh Fork Worship Center in nearby Eunice, the church doors stood open and a big sign outside read "Pray for Our Miners."

"You just feel helpless," said Toby Hilderbrand, who was waiting for word about his wife's uncle, Ricky Workman, 51, of Coalcord, who was among the miners that had not been accounted for. "There's nothing you can do but pray, but at times like this the community really comes together."

Though the cause of the blast was not known, the operation about 30 miles 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 that 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, Stricklin said.

They found nine workers, seven of whom were dead. Two others were injured. Early Tuesday, Stricklin raised the death toll to 12.

Benny R. Willingham, 62, who was five weeks away from retiring, was among those killed, said his sister-in-law Sheila Prillaman.

He had mined for 30 years, the last 17 with Massey, and planned to take his wife on a cruise to the Virgin Islands next month, she said.

"Benny was the type - he probably wouldn't have stayed retired long," Prillaman said. "He wasn't much of a homebody."

Prillaman said family members were angry because they learned of Willingham's death after reading it on a list, instead of being contacted by the company, which said it wouldn't release names until next of kin were notified.

Distraught family members were briefed and taken to a Massey building off-limits to the media.

"We want to assure the families of all the miners we are taking every action possible to locate and rescue those still missing," Massey CEO Don Blankenship, said in a statement.

Massey Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Va., has 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and Tennessee, according to the company's Web site. It ranks among the nation's top five coal producers and is among the industry's most profitable. It has a spotty safety record.

CBS News investigative producer Laura Strickler reports that, according to the MSHA, Massey was fined $897,325 in 2009 and paid $168,393 of that fine. Already in 2010 the mine has been fined $188,769 and has paid $2,676 to date.

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

Coal mining rakes in more than $2 billion every year for West Virginia's economy, and puts roughly 30,000 people to work, but CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod reports violations combined with archaic safety equipment have led to tragic losses of life and placed mining companies under a microscope of scrutiny.

State and federal probes found gaping holes in the safety precautions after the January 2006 Sago Mine explosion.

Following Senate hearings, new guidelines were put in place, but a government review conducted just last month found less than eight percent of all U.S. mines have the new communications and tracking gear requirements put in place after that review, reports Axelrod.

"It's unfortunate that every safety improvement law has been written with the blood of miners," said Democratic West Virginia congressman Nick Rahall.

Massey was also at the center of a major Supreme Court case in 2008, after its CEO Don Blankenship was sued and then accused of basically buying a friendly seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, reports CBS News legal analyst Jan Crawford.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state Supreme Court justice Brent Benjamin should have recused himself from the appeal of a $50 million jury verdict against Massey, because Blankenship spent $3 million to get him elected to the state court.

In the case at issue, a rival mining company had sued Blankenship and Massey, saying they'd tried to drive him out of business, and the jury agreed. The state Supreme Court overturned that verdict - with Benjamin in the 3-2 majority - which led to the U.S. Supreme Court appeal.

The mine company has had three other fatalities in the last dozen years. Monday's blast was the worst U.S. mine disaster since the Sago explosion, also in West Virginia, which also killed 12.

Methane is one of the great dangers of coal mining, and federal records say the Eagle coal seam releases up to 2 million cubic feet 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 labor union.

The colorless, odorless 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 Sago.

Since Sago, federal and state regulators have required mine operators to store extra oxygen supplies. Upper Big Branch uses containers that 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 found evidence that the workers took emergency oxygen supplies from a cache in the mine, Stricklin said. There are two rescue chambers near the blast site and another two a bit farther away.

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

Blankenship said the names of the dead and injured would not be released until next-of-kin were notified.

"West Virginians are tough, we will bind together," said U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, whose district includes where the mine is located.

The mine, which cannot be seen from the road, has 19 openings and roughly 7-foot ceilings. Inside, it's crisscrossed with railroad tracks used for hauling people and equipment. It is located in a mine-laced swath of Raleigh and Boone counties that 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.

A bulk of the coal is removed with a machine called a longwall miner that uses a cutting head to move back and forth across the working face somewhat like a 1,000-foot-long deli slicer.

Gov. Joe Manchin was out of town, but planned to come back, according to his office. President Obama spoke Monday night with Manchin to express his condolences and to offer any assistance, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

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 U.S. 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.

FROM CBS NEWS