by Mike Hall, May 9, 2007

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today released its report on the Jan. 2, 2006, explosion that killed 12 West Virginia coal miners at the Sago Mine. The report echoed the assertion of the mine’s owner, International Coal Group (ICG), that pointed to lightning as cause of the fatal blast. That conclusion, says Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts, is:

…a far-fetched theory and is unsupported by physical evidence found and examined in the mine….We do not believe MSHA or anyone else has conclusively or satisfactorily demonstrated how a charge from a lightning strike over two miles away entered the sealed area of the mine without a conduit from the surface. It’s also important to note that MSHA did not conclusively rule out a roof fall or other frictional activity as the cause of the ignition, which the UMWA believes is the most likely ignition source.

Roberts adds that MSHA’s report on the blast does shed some additional and important light on the explosion and

does not contradict the UMWA’s contention that whatever the source of ignition, it was the conditions inside at the time of the ignition that caused these 12 men to die.

In March, the union released its own findings on the explosion that found the miners’ deaths were the result of a series of decisions made by the mine’s owner and allowed by state and federal agencies charged with mine safety. Click here to download a copy of the UMWA’s Sago report and here for more information on an independent report released in July that outlines several other factors in the explosion.

The new MSHA report does say that failure to monitor methane levels in a sealed section of the mine—operated by ICG—and weakness of the seals used to block off the worked-out section contributed to the blast. But Roberts says there were more factors in play that led to the miners’ deaths.

They are dead because substandard seals were approved by MSHA years ago and used in this mine; because a flawed ventilation plan was approved and implemented; because there was not a mine rescue team immediately available on the property; because there were inadequate functioning oxygen units available underground; and because there was no emergency refuge chamber for them to go to.

MSHA’s report doesn’t change these deadly facts. As I have repeatedly said, had MSHA followed the mandate of Congress and its own rules and regulations, and had the company been more concerned about safety than production, these 12 brave miners at Sago would be alive today. After the release of MSHA’s report, I am even more convinced of that.

MSHA briefed relatives of the blast victims before releasing on the report, but several were skeptical of its findings. Sara Bailey, whose father George Junior Hamner was killed in the explosion, told the Associated Press:

I don’t believe MSHA and I don’t trust MSHA and I think they are a disappointment to our nation’ s coal miners.

Pam Campbell, whose brother-in-law Marty Bennett died in the blast, told the wire service:

It’s going to make a difference on paper, but it’s not going to make a difference to the miners who risk their lives every day trying to support their families.

While discounting the lightning theory at Sago, Roberts says that since both federal and state agencies attribute lightning, emergency regulations should be immediately put in place nationwide that will mandate protection for miners working underground, up to and including withdrawal of miners from underground areas of a mine in the event of an approaching storm that may generate lightning.

The Sago explosion marked the start of the deadliest year in the nation’s coal mines since 1996. Forty-seven coal miners died, an increase of 210 percent over 2005. The rise in deaths also sparked Congress to pass the first significant improvement in mine safety laws in decades with promises to further strengthen safety rules by the Democratic-controlled Congress. It also focused attention on the Bush administration’s failures to improve coal mine safety and protect miners.     

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