Explosion at W.Va. Coal Mine Traps 13

[NNadir]

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - A coal mine explosion that may have been sparked by lightning trapped 13 miners underground Monday, officials said.

The mine had been idle over the holiday and the explosion occurred as the first shift of miners entered to resume production, said Lara Ramsburg, spokeswoman for Gov. Joe Manchin.

"As they were heading in, the car in the back either heard or felt some type of explosion. They headed back out. The first car never made it back out," she said.

Four co-workers attempted to reach the missing miners, but they "came to a wall" of debris, said Steve Milligan, deputy director of Upshur County's Office of Emergency Management.

Hours later, mine rescue teams had not been able to enter the mine because gasses were still venting and it was too dangerous to go in, said Sam Kitts, vice president of operations for International Coal Group Inc., which owns the mine through its recent purchase of Anker West Virginia Mining Co...

...In September 2001, 13 coal miners were killed in a series of explosions at a mine in Broached, Ala. Ten miners had rushed in to rescue co-workers injured by an explosion, only to be killed themselves by a second blast. That was the nation's worst mining accident since Dec. 19, 1984, when fire killed 27 coal miners near Orangeville, Utah...

...West Virginia ended 2005 with three mining fatalities, the lowest since 2000.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060102/ap_on_re_us/mine_explosion

The prognosis here does not sound good.

[caligirl]

1. remembering cuts in worker safety in coal mines by the Bush crime family>

Some timelines slipped at MSHA, and many of the standards that were expected to be completed by the end of 2003 have been carried over to 2004. MSHA withdrew the Focused Inspections standard. Four new items are now on the regulatory agenda. These include Revising Electrical Product Approval Regulations; High Voltage Continuous Mining Machine Standards for Underground Coal Mines; Training Standards for Shaft and Slope Construction Workers at Underground Mines; and Respirable Crystalline Silica. A notice of proposed regulation is slated for March 2004 as part of the Improving and Eliminating Regulations effort.


January 2004—The Bush administration’s 2003 report on mining fatalities reports deaths in the nation’s mines fell by 18 percent, but the report downplays the fact coal mining deaths actually increased by 7 percent. The drop in mine fatalities occurred in metal and nonmetal mines, not in coal mines where the death rate increased, according to MSHA. Coal miners were more likely to die on the job in 2003 than in 2002, MSHA’s figures reveal. In 2003, 29 coal miners were killed on the job, 27 died in 2002.

Feb. 4, 2002—The administration submits its FY 2003 budget proposal to Congress. The president proposed funding cuts for the nation’s worker safety and health programs, including a $9 million reduction for OSHA, a $4 million cut for MSHA and a $28.3 million cut for NIOSH. At OSHA, reductions are targeted at safety and health standards, enforcement and worker training and education, while increases are proposed for compliance assistance and consultation programs for employers. At MSHA, cuts are targeted at coal enforcement at a time when coal-mining deaths have increased for three years straight. While major increases are sought for homeland security and programs to protect the public from bioterrorist attacks, no funds are being sought for OSHA or NIOSH to protect workers from these threats.
http://tinyurl.com/9nce9

[struggle4progress]

2. Related DU thread

Bush crony, in charge of mine safety. Can we expect any less?