Rescuers Hit Setback at West Virginia Mine

By KRIS MAHER And SIOBHAN HUGHES

Reuters

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin tells reporters how far the rescue teams have moved into the mine.

MONTCOAL, W.Va.—Massey Energy Co. officials said it would be several hours before rescue teams could re-enter the Upper Big Branch mine, where four miners remain missing and 25 were killed in a massive explosion earlier this week.

The company and federal and state mine safety officials plan to complete drilling of a second bore hole into the mine to continue lowering the concentration of explosive gases that forced rescue teams out of the mine Thursday morning.

Officials said rescue teams had traveled more than four miles and gotten to within 500 feet of one of two refuge chambers that remain to be checked, but weren't able to see whether the inflatable chamber had been deployed.

Searching for Missing Miners

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Mike Munden/Reuters

Miner Brian Lemon waited around near the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W. Va., Thursday. A small crowd of miners showed uo to show support for their fallen colleagues.

"They were not able to get a visual," said Chris Adkins, chief operating officer of Massey. "This is still a rescue mission. There are still chambers" to be examined.

Ensuring safe conditions in the mine has required drilling 1,100 feet down into the mine and moving heavy machinery on the surface above the mine in a step-by-step and time-consuming process.

Most recently, the rescue operation has focused on completing a second bore hole to speed up the venting of methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen to keep those gases below explosive levels. If those efforts fail, officials will pump nitrogen into a section of the mine with problematic gas readings in order to lessen the risk of an explosion.

Mr. Adkins said the second hole should be completed by early Thursday afternoon, but that it would take an hour and a half to withdraw the drill, followed by an additional three to four hours to flush out more gases.

Six rescue teams are being kept on the mine site and could re-enter by about 8 p.m. Mr. Adkins said the rescue teams, which are made up of miners from Massey and other companies, were "very angry" that they had been called out of the mine.

Due to major setbacks in the search for trapped miners, officials are pulling rescue crews from the West Virginia mine, where an accident occurred on Monday. Craig Boswell reports. Courtesy Fox News.

W. Va Governor Describes Mine's Rescue Effort

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West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin gives a press conference describing the recent rescue efforts after the mine explosion. Courtesy Fox News.

"You can imagine hauling equipment for a long time and then having to double it back," Mr. Adkins said. "They're running on adrenaline right now. They're very tired," he said of the rescue team members.

Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the increase in gas levels could have been caused by a drop in barometric pressure as a weather front begins to move into the area. A more ominous possibility, he said, was that a part of the mine could be smoldering and releasing gases as a result of Monday's explosion.

Another complication in clearing the air from one bore hole already completed is that the section of the mine where miners were cutting coal, known as the coal face, doesn't have any exit point to the outside.

Fatal Mining Disasters

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See a list of fatal U.S. coal mine disasters.

Mr. Stricklin compared clearing the air in this part of the mine to blowing into a soda bottle. "There's no place for the air to go," he said.

Gov. Joe Manchin said that safety officials and family members aren't giving up hope and that there is still a possibility that the four missing miners could have reached one of the refuge chambers that have enough food, water and oxygen to sustain them. But he was still cautious about raising hopes.

"It's a long shot," Mr. Manchin said. "Everyone has been up front about that, because this was a horrible blast. If anyone's alive in the mine, they're in that chamber."

Mr. Manchin said a rotating group of between 50 and 100 family members of the missing miners have been gathered at a location near the mine since the accident anxiously awaiting news of the miners' fate.

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Hundreds of people came together for a vigil Wednesday night. They carried candles and walked quietly through Whitesville, a town down the river from the Upper Big Bend mine. Many of them wore Performance uniforms and expressed hope that the missing miners would be found alive.

"As long as there's breath, there's hope," said Melissa Roop, whose husband works for Massey at a surface coal mine. "I believe that they're going to come out."

She said she doesn't blame Massey for the explosion. "Accidents happen," she said. Ms. Roop knew Jason Atkins, one of the miners who has been reported as dead.

MSHA appointed a team of investigators to look into the blast. The team includes safety officials from outside the district normally responsible for enforcement at the Upper Big Branch mine. The mine has a history of citations involving the ventilation of methane, which is found naturally in coal seams.

On Tuesday, Massey CEO Don Blankenship denied that the mine had a poor safety record that should have prompted different procedures. "The safety record in the past three months had been really really good," Mr. Blankenship said. "The last couple of years it had been high by Massey standards and the industry standards."

Refuge Chamber

Officials held out hope that survivors were able to make it to one of four rescue shelters. See full graphic.

Records posted on the agency's Web site show that citations were issued the day of the explosion. The records indicate that the agency had accused the mine's operator—Performance Coal, a Massey subsidiary—of violating a regulation that requires companies to maintain up-to-date escapeway maps. Underground coal mines are required to have maps detailing escape routes, the location of doors and refuge chambers.

The other citation involves an alleged violation of a regulation governing the splicing of electrical cables, according to MSHA's Web site.

But Mr. Stricklin said he didn't think the safety issues cited were related to the blast because they involved an area far from the explosion site

A spokesman for the Department of Labor—which oversees MSHA—declined to comment on the alleged violations.

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