Rescue crews to start long trek to find possible W.Va. mine disaster survivors; hope is slim

Crews to start search for mine disaster survivors

MONTCOAL, W.Va. — Rescue crews geared up to descend more than a thousand feet below the earth in a West Virginia coal mine Thursday hoping to find possible survivors of the worst U.S. mining disaster in a generation.

Officials and townsfolk alike admitted they didn’t expect to find any of the four still-missing miners alive in the Upper Big Branch mine more than two days after a massive explosion killed 25 workers. Poisonous gases have filled the underground tunnels since Monday afternoon’s blast.

Crews drilled holes deep into the earth to ventilate lethal carbon monoxide, highly explosive hydrogen, as well as methane gas, which has been blamed for the explosion. The air quality was deemed safe enough for four teams of eight members each to go on what officials were still calling a rescue mission.

“We’re focused,” said Kevin Stricklin, coal administrator of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. “It is what it is, and this is what we’re dealing with right now.”

The hope: that survivors made it to one of the shaft’s rescue chambers, which are stocked with food, water and enough oxygen to last four days. Crews were headed to the two chambers nearest the blast site first, though by 5:50 a.m., it was not known whether they were winding their way through the dark tunnels.

“We’re hoping that we can finish this mission,” said federal mine safety director Joe Main. “But if we encounter conditions that preclude that, we’ll adjust.”

The teams needed to trek some five miles from the mine’s entrance to the area the men might be. Underground rail cars would take them as far as possible, but the rest would be on foot, Stricklin said.

Optimistically it would take two to three hours to reach the section about 1,000 feet down where officials believe the last four might be. Stricklin placed the earliest time to get there about 7 a.m. Seven bodies had been brought out Monday and 18 others were known dead still inside the mine owned by Massey Energy Co., which has been cited for numerous safety violations.

Rescue team members planned to carry 30 pounds of gear including breathing devices to protect them from bad air. They had to shave off facial hair so their breathing gear would fit snugly, Stricklin said.

Gov. Joe Manchin and others saw only a “sliver of hope” that the miners survived.

“We’ve been working against long odds from day one,” Manchin warned.

The effect of so many sudden deaths in these small coal-reliant communities started showing with obituaries for the victims appearing in local newspapers. The first five funerals were scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

Miner William “Bob” Griffith’s family was preparing for the worst. Griffith went to work Monday and never came home, said his brother, James Griffith, who also works at the mine. William Griffith’s brother-in-law, Carl Acord, died in the explosion.

“In my honest opinion, if anyone else survives it, I will be surprised,” James Griffith said.

Doug Griffith, another of William Griffith’s brothers and also a miner, sat down with his family after getting a briefing on the rescue effort, said his wife, Cindi.

“He just said we really need to prepare for the worst,” she said. “They don’t feel like there’s any hope.”

The federal mine agency appointed a team of investigators to look into the blast, which officials said may have been caused by a buildup of methane. Massey Energy Co. has been repeatedly cited for problems with the system that vents methane and for allowing combustible dust to build up. On the day of the blast, MSHA cited the mine with two safety violations — one involving inadequate maps of escape routes, the other concerning an improper splice of electrical cable. However, Stricklin said the violations had nothing to do with the blast.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship has strongly defended the company’s record and disputed accusations from miners that he puts coal profits ahead of safety.

The mine produced more than 1.2 million tons of coal last year and uses the lowest-cost underground mining method, making it more profitable. It produces metallurgical coal that is used to make steel and sells for up to $200 a ton — more than double the price for the type of coal used by power plants.

The confirmed death toll of 25 was the highest in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 people died in a fire at a mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it will be the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.

The explosion and its aftermath have gripped communities that rely on the income the mines provide in the heart of coal country.

Anna West, 34, joined about 300 people, many wearing the reflective orange stripes of the miners they love, to walk silently through the small town of Whitesville in a candlelight vigil for both the dead and missing.

She was with her three young children, thinking of their father, Claude West Jr., who has been a miner for eight years, the last several at the Kanawha Eagle mine.

“It could have just as well been my husband,” she said. “My father was a miner, his father was a miner.

“I already told my son that I don’t want him to be a miner.”

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Associated Press Writers Greg Bluestein, Vicki Smith, Tom Breen, Tim Huber and John Raby and videojournalist Mark Carlson in West Virginia; Mitch Weiss and Mike Baker in North Carolina; Ray Henry in Atlanta; and Sam Hananel in Washington contributed to this report.