News & Politics - Miners Still Missing After West Virginia Mine Explosion

**sunnykerr** · 04-07-2010, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Fears grow for missing US miners

Rescue crews drilling holes into a stricken West Virginia coal mine have failed so far to detect any signs of life from four missing miners.

Search teams banging on a drill pipe to send a signal into the mine received no response, officials said.

Twenty-five miners are already known to have died after Monday's explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine.

Toxic gases have made it too dangerous for rescuers to enter the mine until it has been ventilated by drill holes.

The first drill hole broke through into the mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, on Wednesday morning.

Once the holes have been drilled through the top of the mine to ventilate a chamber more than 1,000 ft below ground, rescue crews will need four or five hours to reach the area where the miners are thought to be trapped, the chief operating officer for the mine's owner Massey Energy, Chris Adkins, told AP news agency.

"Given... the appearance of the explosion that was described by some of the rescue team members that I talked to, I don't give it much hope", Massey Energy chief Don Blankenship told West Virginia MetroNews Radio.

Slow drilling

Conditions in the mine caused by the explosion, the worst US mining disaster for more than a quarter of a century, have made the rescue operation extremely difficult.

"There's so much dirt and dust and everything is so dark that it's very easy, as hard as it may seem to any of us outside in this room, to walk by a body," Mine Safety and Health Administration spokeman Kevin Stricklin was quoted as saying by AP.

Officials are not certain how long the drilling operation to vent the mine will take.

It could be midday on Wednesday before progress is made, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin said.

The bodies of 14 miners remain inside the mine, after the build up of methane and carbon monoxide gases made it impossible to continue the rescue operation.

BBC News - Fears grow for missing miners after West Virginia blast

This is such a tragedy. I cannot imagine what the families of those who are still missing and of those who are dead must be going through.

I can't imagine what they must have been going through before this happened. It's such a dangerous job.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-07-2010, 05:28 PM

I've been hearing about it on the news and had been meaning to come post about it. SO SAD indeed.

I saw today they had one air vent complete ... but beyond that ...

vc318 · 04-07-2010, 07:09 PM

I can't believe this has happened again.

I hope they are able to rescue them.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-08-2010, 12:26 PM

Today I heard that they say there are above lethal levels of gas where they thought the miners should have been. So sad.

**sunnykerr** · 04-09-2010, 06:00 PM

It's horrible.

But didn't feel like a foregone conclusion? I mean, I probably missed something crucial, but if rescue efforts have to stop so that noxious gases can properly dissipate, I assume the people trapped in the place where noxious gases are don't have a great chance of survival.

I hope they get all of their men out of there, now. At least give the families the closure of a burial.

vc318 · 04-10-2010, 07:08 AM

They found the last of the 4 victims dead today:

Four missing miners found dead - Life- msnbc.com

According to the report, I guess the blast was very sudden and in thus, none of them probably suffered. I wish there were better safety regulations for these miners.

**sunnykerr** · 04-10-2010, 05:23 PM

Well, at least the families have something to bury now. It's probably cold comfort, but it's something.

**Wildfire Girl** · 04-10-2010, 05:36 PM

Agreed that at least they KNOW and assume it was quick. So sad indeed.


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