W.Va. coal mine disaster kills 2 workers

Cause of collapse still unclear; operation had history of safety problems

The entrance gate to Brody Mine No. 1 in Wharton, W.Va., is closed after two men were trapped and killed Monday by a collapse believed to have been caused by ‘retreat mining,’ the most dangerous mining process.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The entrance gate to Brody Mine No. 1 in Wharton, W.Va., is closed after two men were trapped and killed Monday by a collapse believed to have been caused by ‘retreat mining,’ the most dangerous mining process.

WHARTON, W.Va. — A disaster at a West Virginia coal mine with a history of violations killed two men who were engaged in “retreat mining,” a process that an expert Tuesday called “the most dangerous type of [coal] mining you can do.”

The West Virginia men — Eric D. Legg, 48, of Twilight, and Gary P. Hensley, 46, of Chapmanville — died Monday night at Brody Mine No. 1 near Wharton in rural Boone County, about 50 miles south of the state capital of Charleston.

The fatalities mark the nation’s fourth and fifth coal-mining deaths this year, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Federal and state inspectors were on scene at the mine, which is owned by Patriot Coal Co. in St. Louis.

The incident happened about 8:30 p.m. Monday, trapping the miners for a time before their bodies were recovered.

By Tuesday, it was still not entirely clear what happened. Patriot cited a “severe coal burst” during “retreat mining operations” as the cause. The mining administration said it was because of a “ground failure.” And the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training called it a “coal outburst.”

“There was retreat mining going on, which does involve removing pillars, but it’s too early to speculate about the exact chain of events that led to this accident,” MSHA spokesman Amy Louviere said.

Tony Oppegard, a private lawyer in Kentucky who represents miners and is a former mining administration official, said it sounded like an unexpected roof collapse might have occurred during the final phase of the mining operation.

In coal mining, when work is advancing, machinery makes wide tunnels and leaves pillars of coal holding up the roof.

During retreat mining, after miners have gone as far as they can, they work their way backward, purposely cutting the pillars, recovering the remaining coal, and intentionally causing the roof to collapse in front of them.

“Even if retreat mining is done exactly as it’s supposed to it’s still ultra-hazardous,” Mr. Oppegard said.

Mining companies are supposed to shore up the roofs during the retreat phase. It was not known whether that was done at Brody Mine No. 1.

When engaging in retreat mining companies are supposed to file a detailed plan with MSHA before proceeding, Mr. Oppegard said. They are also expected to educate the miners who will be doing the work about the plan.

Mr. Oppegard cautioned that it will be months before government officials determine a cause of the collapse.

In October, the Mine Safety and Health Administration put three mining operations — out of nearly 15,000 in the nation — on notice of a pattern of violations, including Brody Mine No. 1.

“A POV notice, one of the agency’s toughest enforcement actions, is reserved for the mines that pose the greatest risk to the safety of miners,” according to an administration news release at the time.

The Brody mine received 253 “significant and substantial” violations.

A federal audit found that injured miners accounted for 1,757 lost work days at the mine. Of those, 367 lost work days stemmed from eight injuries that Brody failed to report, the news release said.

Patriot disagreed with the federal government’s description of its safety record.

“During the period of time it has operated as a Patriot subsidiary, the Brody mine has made considerable and measurable progress toward improved safety and compliance,” Patriot said in a statement responding to the government findings.

Patriot acquired Brody Mining at the end of 2012.

“Many of the violations and the severity measure cited in the POV finding took place under the prior owner,” Patriot said. “Immediately following Patriot’s purchase of Brody, on January 3, 2013, the company submitted a Compliance Improvement Plan to MSHA. Since that time, the Brody mine compliance performance (as measured by violations per inspector day) has improved by 40 percent.”

Mr. Oppegard, however, noted that violations have continued into 2014, with the most recent listed on the MSHA Web site from May 7.

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Jonathan D. Silver is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

He can be reached at: jsilver@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1962.