Fire In W.virginia Mine

oh no, these poor hard working miners, its so dangerous....
 
MELLVILLE, W.Va. — Rescue teams were searching an underground coal mine early Friday for two miners who were unaccounted for after a fire broke out, authorities said.

The fire was reported Thursday night at the Aracoma Coal Co. in Melville, about 60 miles southwest of Charleston.

<snip>

The fire was reported around 8:05 p.m. and appeared to be about 10,000 feet inside the mine, said Doug Conaway, director of the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training.

Four rescue teams had entered the mine and two were heading to the mine, he said. Manchin also was on the scene early Friday, and miners' families gathered at the Brightstar Freewill Baptist Church, about a mile away.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182292,00.html
 
Oh, dear Lord. Please let this turn out successfully. Please be with the miners, their families, and their rescuers.
 
The search & rescue teams are on sight but have not found the 2 missing miners as of yet. Prayers for them & their families.
 
Oh my gosh y'all! I am just a bundle of nerves right now! I knew y'all would be covering this. Thank God for Websleuths! My ex father-in- law works at this mine and can't get a hold of anyone down there (he resides in Raleigh county) and they are not releasing any names so I am so worried and the only info I'm getting is coming from WS. Although his son & I had our fair share of hard times, my ex father in law is a wonderful man and many times took my side of things and told his son to straighten up. I'm just at a loss and worried to death. Please keep me informed and if I do get through to the family down there (I'm up closer to MD in WV) I'll post it. Thanks!
 
ember said:
Oh my gosh y'all! I am just a bundle of nerves right now! I knew y'all would be covering this. Thank God for Websleuths! My ex father-in- law works at this mine and can't get a hold of anyone down there (he resides in Raleigh county) and they are not releasing any names so I am so worried and the only info I'm getting is coming from WS. Although his son & I had our fair share of hard times, my ex father in law is a wonderful man and many times took my side of things and told his son to straighten up. I'm just at a loss and worried to death. Please keep me informed and if I do get through to the family down there (I'm up closer to MD in WV) I'll post it. Thanks!


I hope you reach someone soon, for your own peace of mind. I'm watching fox news and just a little while ago they said the families are asking that the names of the two men not be released to media. I think the men are fairly young though. Whoever they are I pray they get to them soon and all are safe.
 
Hi Ember,

As you know, I always enjoy reading your posts. I know that everyone here at WS is praying right along with you that they pull these two guys out safely, and I know we are all hoping your ex-FinL is not one of them.

I bet almost everyone associated with the miners is at that church, which is why you probably can't reach anyone. Just keep heartfelt thoughts of hope until you hear. And I know we appreciate any info you can find out.


Scandi
 
We used to have an experiment in high school, where a relatively small amount of coal dust, was placed in a container, and then by blowing through a hose, that coal dust was dispersed into the air inside of the container, then a flame, from a lit match, was then touched to that dust, and it would result in an explosion. This is the same kind of the dust explosions that are so well known in the graineries, and silos, of the midwest.

When you have so much fuel, the chance of an explosion, and fire, is very high. All that is required is that spark to cause ignition.

With the very high price of coal, there is a rebirth in the coal mining industry, and the safety precautions in some of these older, or reopened mines, isn't always what it should be. If you want to keep your job, in an economically depressed area, you learn not to complain too much. It isn't as if you can just go down the street and get another job.

When the Sago coal mining disaster happened, I mentioned that we would be hearing about more coal mining disasters.
 
ember said:
Oh my gosh y'all! I am just a bundle of nerves right now! I knew y'all would be covering this. Thank God for Websleuths! My ex father-in- law works at this mine and can't get a hold of anyone down there (he resides in Raleigh county) and they are not releasing any names so I am so worried and the only info I'm getting is coming from WS. Although his son & I had our fair share of hard times, my ex father in law is a wonderful man and many times took my side of things and told his son to straighten up. I'm just at a loss and worried to death. Please keep me informed and if I do get through to the family down there (I'm up closer to MD in WV) I'll post it. Thanks!


Ember, I did hear them say that the two men are "young men"....so that may rule out your ex-FIL. Still, it's horrible for all concerned, and I am praying hard you get some information soon.
 
Jeana, let's just pray that they have found a safe area with some good air and are just waiting for help to find them.

Jeana (DP) said:
I don't know how much more these poor guys can take.
 
I did hear a comment a little while ago on Fox. He said he thinks the two miners have gone into an area where there is fresh or breathable air and put up a barrier.

One thing just bowls me over. Why is there no way to communicate to these men from topside? In our age of technology, there should be something like a little Nextel two way phone that could be used, and each miner would have one. I've heard you can't use phones down in the mine, but I also heard at Sago there was a central phone or squaukbox and that it just wasn't working. Someone should be able to invent something!

Scandi

ETA: I should have said the commentator in the mining biz said he thinks that is what they might have done.

I just now heard that the smoke is too thick for the rescue teams to go inside. Gee, I heard 2 hours ago that they were just going into the mine at that time!
 
Good point Scandi and while they are at it, why don't they place emergency supplies of air at different locations in the mines. They have the material down there to use to make the barrier in case of an emergency. Why don't they have extra air besides the ones that each miner carries? It wouldn't hurt if they had other emergency supplies such as water and maybe even food. It is possible that they wouldn't be able to get to it(depending on where they were trapped) but there is always a possibilty that they could too.
 
Hi Shadow,

I heard during the Sago disaster that they do have areas in the mines that have some supplies stockpiled, like water and materials for building barriers. But the problem could be they are far and few between, and if you aren't close to one when disaster hits, you might not be able to get to it. Just like the smoke right now in this mine fire - no one can enter the mine because for besides being too dangerous, they can't see.


Scandi
 
Amazing there has been no news since 1:30 this afternoon! Have we heard nothing? I'm just anxious, you know, to hear rescuers were able to go into the mine to find them. And of course that the 2 men are safe.


Scandi
 
I hardly see updates on the cable news channels about this mine disaster. It's a shame they can't cover it a little more like they did the Sago tragedy.
 
I'm sitting here tonight watching Greta who is covering this new mine disaster, and my blood is starting to boil!

Why can't they communicate with these men to locate them? Even Greta said something like its sad something wasn't implemented since the last mine disaster 3 weeks ago, as she shook her head. GPS. Why do these men not have a GPS button on their persons? Doesn't it work underground?

So the latest now is they are digging a hole to send down some sonar equipment to see if the men are in this spot. Evidently they dug another hole where they thought the men would be and they weren't there. So if the men don't tap for them, then they will lower a camera inside the mine to look for the men.

To me it looks like the mining industry expects so many men every year to die, and so be it. The mines do not have ready disaster rescue units on hand, and calling them up and getting them there takes so much time. You can just take the cream off the top of these men's chances for survival, if you can't send in a crew immediately to look for them.

This mine has 4 tunnels and each one is like 10 miles long. Could that be right? So much area to cover. I do apologize for getting angry, but I'm starting to see after 2 such disasters in less than a month, that the industry has done nothing effective to save the lives of miners in peril. It is like they are still back in the days of yore in the industry. Especially when communications has made one of the biggest inroads for development as of late!

It's like Buzz says, if you're a miner, don't complain too much if conditions are rough. You need to keep the job! Just terrible.


Scandi
 
I don't know about the other cable news stations but FOX News is doing a pretty good job. They have a reporter on sight and are doing periodical updates.



Taximom said:
I hardly see updates on the cable news channels about this mine disaster. It's a shame they can't cover it a little more like they did the Sago tragedy.
 

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