Explosion at W.Va. Coal Mine Traps 13

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. – An explosion at a coal mine trapped 13 miners more than a mile underground, a county emergency official said Monday.

The explosion happened about 8 a.m. at the Sago Mine in Upshur County, said Steve Milligan, deputy director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management. Six miners made it out of the mine and refused treatment.

The trapped miners’ condition was not immediately known as an attempt by coworkers to reach them was unsuccessful, Milligan said.

“They essentially came to a wall,” Milligan said. “So they can’t get to them at this time.” The miners were one to two miles underground, he said.

A specially trained mine rescue team was being sent to the scene. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, said Terry Farley, an administrator with the state Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training. State officials were at the mine.

The mine, in north-central West Virginia, about 100 miles from Charleston, is owned by Anker West Virginia Mining Co., which was recently purchased by International Coal Group.

In September 2001, 13 coal miners were killed in a series of explosions at a mine in Brookwood, Ala. Ten miners had rushed in to rescue co-workers injured by an explosion, only to be killed themselves by a second blast. That was the nation’s worst mining accident since Dec. 19, 1984, when fire killed 27 coal miners near Orangeville, Utah.

In July 2002, nine miners were rescued after being trapped for 77 hours in a mine near Somerset, Pa.