CORRECTED: West Virginia explosion traps 13 coal miners

Corrects first paragraph to read underground on Monday

By Juliet Terry

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (Reuters) – An early morning
explosion at a West Virginia coal mine trapped 13 miners more
than a mile underground on Monday and rescuers struggled to
reach them.

The cause of the blast was not yet known, officials said,
and high gas concentrations were hampering rescue efforts.

“We’re really hoping and praying for a speedy recovery and
a safe recovery for them,” Gov. Joe Manchin told CNN.

“We don’t know what could have happened. It was just a
horrific accident.”

As soon as ventilation fans could clear remove some of the
gas, rescuers would head into the Sago mine to assess damage
and start digging through a wall of debris blocking access to
the miners, according to Steve Milligan of the Upshur County’s
Office of Emergency Management.

Miners are equipped with breathing equipment and other
survival supplies, but officials said there had been no contact
with the trapped miners since the explosion.

“There’s always that possibility, that hope and that
chance, they were able to go to a part of the mine that still
has safe air,” Manchin said. “There’s places they can retreat
in all these mines. They have catacombs.”

The explosion, which occurred between 6:00 a.m. and 6:30
a.m., happened when the mine was reopening after it had been
closed for the holidays, according to Manchin’s spokeswoman,
Lara Ramsburg.

Ramsburg said two cars were entering the mine and that the
second car, carrying six miners, made it out after feeling the
effects of the explosion.

The six miners tried to reenter the mine to rescue their 13
fellow workers in the first car but could not reach them, she
said.

Manchin, who was in Atlanta with his wife, Gayle, to attend
the Sugar Bowl college football game between the University of
Georgia and West Virginia University, was leaving to return to
West Virginia.

Rescue efforts were initially hampered because of high
levels of gas around the mine, which raised the risk of
additional explosions and forced officials to evacuate the
area. The gas had initially believed to have been methane, but
officials later said they were not certain what it was.

Officials also were worried about a build-up of carbon
monoxide from fires in the mine, said Terry Farley, an
administrator at the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health
Safety and Training.

Hundreds of family and friends gathered at a nearby Baptist
church where the Red Cross set up operations.

Mine-rescue teams from around the region rushed to the site
and were joined by officials from federal safety agencies.

Residents said the blast shook nearby houses, according to
local media. Rescuers had not been able to establish
communication with the trapped miners.

The mine, owned by International Coal Group Inc, which
acquired it through a recent merger, is located in central West
Virginia, about 100 miles from Charleston.

The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and
Training says there were three fatalities involving miners in
2005 from three separate incidents.

In 2002, nine Pennsylvania coal miners were rescued after a
77-hour ordeal in a flooded mine shaft 240 feet underground.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and
Chriss Swaney in Pittsburgh)