Explosion Traps W. Va. Coal Miners

TALLMANSVILLE, W. Va., Jan. 2 -- An early morning explosion at a coal mine here Monday dumped a wall of debris and trapped 13 miners hundreds of feet underground, state authorities said.

A second group of miners escaped the mine after hearing and feeling the explosion. Several of them tried to rush back in to save their co-workers but could not reach them. Rescuers from three states and the federal government were traveling to the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston, and those at the scene were kept out of the shaft much of the day as dangerous gases vented from the mine, a sign that fire may be raging underground, or is at risk of breaking out.

Authorities said there was no word about whether the trapped miners survived the explosion. State officials held out hope that the men, who carried emergency breathing gear, may have found safety in a catacomb, were still alive -- and waiting for rescue.

By evening several teams of rescuers were finally able to enter the mine but, with carbon monoxide levels still high, officials planned to frequently rotate seven-member teams using hand tools to try to remove the debris blocking the way to the trapped miners.

Officials from the company that owns the mine said they hope to begin a drilling operation this evening that will provide a small hole down to the mine to let in air and to allow rescue workers to monitor air quality.

Worried families of the miners gathered at Sago Baptist Church near the mine. They tried to fortify themselves with memories of the dramatic rescue of nine men from a flooded coal mine in Somerset, Pa., in 2002. But as evening descended, many in Upshur County were growing anxious.

"We're hoping they got ahead of the explosion and they are in an area where there is oxygen," said Tim Flint, whose stepson Randy McCloy, 26, was one of the men trapped in the mine. Flint said his stepson thought about the danger all the time. "He told his wife every morning before he left that he loved her because he knew you never know what might happen."

Flint said tall, thin Randy worked in the mine because he wanted to earn enough money so his wife Anna could stay home with their two children, 4-year-old Randy and 1-year-old Isabel: "He didn't want them both working at Walmart and putting the kids in daycare."

Methane gas, which builds up naturally in coal mines, has caused other mine explosions. Experts said that methane build-up can be worse in winter months because of changes in barometric pressure. Roger Nicholson, general counsel for the mine's owner, International Coal Group, told the Associated Press that it was not clear what caused the blast and that there was no indication it was methane-related.

It was unclear how far below ground the trapped men actually were. Lara Ramsburg, a spokeswoman for West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D), said the men were several thousand feet inside the mine, but local residents said that the mines in the area ran in long horizontal lengths, rather than vertically.

The mine has seen a recent spike in health and safety violations, according to records kept at the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration: 205 citations and orders were issued against the mine in 2005 compared to 68 in 2004. State investigators said they would review the records to see if there were warning signs of danger at the mine.

The explosion took place between 6 and 6:30 a.m., as two groups of miners in separate carts were entering the mine to resume operations after the holidays, Ramsburg said. Miners in the second cart, who were not within sight of the first, heard or felt an explosion ahead of them and swiftly retreated.