Terrible blast in WVA mine...

[R13]

Massey is the company that is buying out or has bought out cumberland resources in this area. I hope this was a freak accident and that they were using/do use proper safety procedure in their mining. (i know thats hard to come by)

I just heard them talking about them, said they had a good track record last year safety wise, but this particular mine should not have been operating...so really their one slip up caused the biggest mine disaster in 25 years.

[starbuck]

my cousins wife has a nephew that works at this mine and had gotten off work about an hour before this happend.

according to the news this mine just in March alone had hundreds of violations.

[simple man]

Smoke from a fire now...and pumping nitrogen in 2 days after Massey was asked to get the stuff on site. This might be one they have to seal to put out. The mined-out area is huge, but sealed..as long as the seals withstood the explosion. Tough choices...haven't even IDed the ones they found.

[imported_elp6n]

I just heard them talking about them, said they had a good track record last year safety wise, but this particular mine should not have been operating...so really their one slip up caused the biggest mine disaster in 25 years.

Their track record is the exact opposite of good. They've had 60 withdrawal orders issued by mine inspectors (combination of total and partial evacuation) since the beginning of 2009 alone. A huge number of those were failure to ventilate failure to decrease combustible materials (coal dust).

They've met the criteria for "unwarranted violations" and failure to remedy violations at a much higher rate than many other deep mines. Other mines typically have frequent violations, but not that many that are as serious as theirs.

Their smaller mines may not have such a bad track record, but IMO this horrible record of blantant disregard for safety over the course of years in their major money maker overshadows any of that.

[shwalker32]

does anyone remember the mine explosion that happened in the guest river area in 1992 or 1993 not sure which one, and if so if there is a link to it could you please post it

[imported_elp6n]

December 1992, Southmountain Coal.
Killed 8. 1 fellow on his way out of the mine at the time of the explosion survived, with injuries.
There was a Methane build up, and the methane was ignited by a cigarette lighter.

Several mine employees were sentenced to time over the cause of the explosion. They had allowed miners to smoke underground, and they had falsified books.

[simple man]

The wait is over.
"The conditions were so rough after the blast that rescuers only late Friday realized that they had walked past the bodies of the four missing miners on the first day without seeing, a federal mine safety official said."
Four missing miners found dead - Life- msnbc.com

[ms pemberley]

Almost everybody in my family either currently works at a mine, was disabled while working at a mine or at some point in their life worked there. My neighbors are miners, as are most people in the area. I remember growing up, everytime there was an explosion or a cave in, having to run around and find out what mine and go through the list of what family was working where. We were fortunate to have everybody come out each time. You panic until you know they're fine. I can't even imagine what happens when you find out they're not. My prayers are with those in West Virginia.

[R13]

Their track record is the exact opposite of good. They've had 60 withdrawal orders issued by mine inspectors (combination of total and partial evacuation) since the beginning of 2009 alone. A huge number of those were failure to ventilate failure to decrease combustible materials (coal dust).

They've met the criteria for "unwarranted violations" and failure to remedy violations at a much higher rate than many other deep mines. Other mines typically have frequent violations, but not that many that are as serious as theirs.

Their smaller mines may not have such a bad track record, but IMO this horrible record of blantant disregard for safety over the course of years in their major money maker overshadows any of that.

I was talking about last year, they had cleaned things up as of last year a lot. Guess not.

Anyone see where one of the miners had a bad feeling that morning and wrote his family a goodbye letter just in case, then that happened. Crazy.

[Jason]

I was talking about last year, they had cleaned things up as of last year a lot. Guess not.

Anyone see where one of the miners had a bad feeling that morning and wrote his family a goodbye letter just in case, then that happened. Crazy.

Got a link? If I had a bad feeling that I felt I needed to write a goodbye letter I would have took a sick day instead.