http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/20/mine.fire/index.html


LOGAN, West Virginia (CNN) -- Rescue teams were searching a West Virginia coal mine Friday for two miners separated from their crew as they were escaping a fire, officials said.

"Time is not our friend," said Gov. Joe Manchin. "The longer the time goes, the more difficult it becomes, so we're concerned about that."

The miners' names and ages were not released at the request of the families, who are awaiting word at a nearby church, the governor said.

Five mine rescue teams were working underground trying to reach them, according to Doug Conaway, director of the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.

Rescuers are using infrared technology to scan the area and have found heavy smoke at mine entries, he said.

The fire apparently began on a mechanical belt inside the Aracoma Alma Mine No. 1 Thursday night, government and mine officials said. The Massey Energy-owned mine is located in Logan County, West Virginia, about 60 miles southwest of Charleston.

A crew of 12 was working in the mine when a monitor went off at 5:36 p.m., indicating a fire, said Conaway.

Ten miners encountered smoke but safely exited to safety about two hours later, only to find their two colleagues were missing, Conaway said. The ten were unable to offer much information about the location of the missing miners.

The mine's ventilation system was working "as far as we can tell," he said later, adding there was no reason for it to stop operating.

Carbon monoxide levels appear to have stabilized by Friday morning, Conaway said.

The mine has not had any fatal accidents since 1995, the earliest year tracked by the U.S. Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Last year, Alma Mine 1 had a nonfatal accident rate of 9.01, compared with the national average of 6.39. The year before, the mine had a nonfatal accident rate of 0.82, compared with the national average of 5.66.

The accident comes less than a month after the disaster at the Sago Mine in Tallmansville where 12 miners died. The only survivor remained hospitalized Friday. (Read latest on his condition)

Unlike with Sago, "We have a difference this time," said Manchin. "We don't have an explosion, which is good news."

And although carbon monoxide is always present in a mine fire, he said, levels were "nowhere near what they were in the Sago Mine."


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Hopefully this one will have a better outcome and information will be correct the first time around.

These things probably happen every week or two, but the media doesn't care unless something really dramatic happens.

Maybe the Discovery Channel can have a show about coal mining! What mine can mine the most coal before the deadline! The Deadliest Mine! Yeah! They can even really downplay it when someone actually dies and play some hard-rockin music when they discover a bigass vein of fresh coal!

How come the media will proclaim it's a miracle if the miners get saved, but not say this is the work of Satan when these things happen?

http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/vie ... hp?t=31244

I heard the mining companies were mad that workers were using the other mine disaster as an excuse to unionize. Now it ain't looking like such a bad idea.

Are these the rocket enthusiasts?

No. And I can't believe so many people know of "the rocket boys". I guess it's better than a lot of stuff that WV gets associated with though.

The unions went down the toilet in the '80s and nobody gives a fuck anymore.

There was a movie about it, ya know. Something October or perhaps November related.

I didn't even think anyone would get the reference.

October Sky. Yep, grew up 15 minutes from Coalwood, and went to the same high school as them. The book and movie were just coming out when I graduated from high school and the buzz was that this thing was going to be popular, which I never believed. Why the fuck would anyone care, right? Shows what I know I guess.