Mine Rescue Teams Pull Back

Heavy smoke Friday prevented rescue teams from searching for two missing coal miners who never made it out after a conveyer belt caught fire deep inside a mine. Nineteen others had reached the surface safely, state officials said.

"We went as far as we could go. We were hoping that maybe we could go all the way, but conditions dictate the changes. We need to come back. We need to get that fire under control," Doug Conaway, director of the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training.

Earlier, Conaway reported the visibility was so poor inside the mine that searchers had to attach themselves to each other in order to stay together.

The fire started Thursday evening inside the Alma No. 1 Mine operated by Massey Energy subsidiary Aracoma Coal, about 60 miles southwest of Charleston, officials said.

The missing miners had just entered the non-union mine for their evening shift when a carbon monoxide monitor, about 10,000 feet from the mine entrance, set off an alarm at 5:36 p.m., Conaway said. About 10 minutes later, the company told the miners to get out.

The missing miners were part of a group of 12 who encountered smoke as they left, put on breathing gear and continued to the surface, but only 10 made it out. Nine other miners in another part of the mine also escaped.

Gov. Joe Manchin was at the mine Friday morning, and miners' families gathered at the nearby Brightstar Freewill Baptist Church to wait for news.

"West Virginia, our little state, has been through a lot of tragedy in a very short period of time, but if you know West Virginia families, we're strong, and with the grace of God, we're going to get through this," Manchin said.

It was a scene all too familiar in West Virginia. Less than three weeks earlier, an explosion at the International Coal Group's Sago Mine led to the deaths of 12 miners. The disaster's sole survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., 26, remained hospitalized in a light coma Friday.

"They're all together and they're very hopeful," Manchin said of the families. "They know that the odds are a little bit long.

"Sago is very fresh in everybody's mind, but this is a different scenario."

Massey spokeswoman Katharine W. Kenny said, "We're very optimistic."

Friday morning, two of the rescue teams at the Aracoma mine were more than 10,000 feet inside and had passed the conveyer belt fire, which was still smoldering, and the mine car the miners had taken to get into that section of the mine, Conaway said.

But once they got past the fire, the smoke was too thick, requiring more effort to be directed to putting out the fire, Conaway said. Fire teams were using foam and water in that section, which has six miles of tunnels.

"We're making an effort here to contain the fire. We've seen it from a couple of different places but we don't know the extent of it," Conaway said. "The teams are in the process now of trying to fight that fire and get it under control."

Air samples from an existing hole near the fire showed elevated levels of carbon monoxide, although not as severe as levels at the Sago mine. At one point, rescue teams were in the mine without breathing gear, Conaway said.

Conaway said the rescue teams were working "as hard as we can" to locate the miners.

Jesse Cole, with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said listening equipment would be set up to try to locate them.

Haskell Sheppard, 29, works the overnight shift as a repairman on the main conveyor belt that brings the coal out. He said the line where the fire broke out had problems in the past, but nothing as serious as this time. Officials did not know how the fire started.

"Things are bound to tear up every once in a while," he said.

According to MSHA's Web site, the Alma mine received 95 citations from MSHA inspectors during 2005. The most recent were issued on Dec. 20, when the mine was cited with seven violations ranging from controlling coal dust and other combustible materials to its ventilation plan.

The mine was assessed $28,268 in penalties last year and it has paid nearly $13,000.

It has not had a fatal accident since 1995. The mine had a better-than-average accident rate between 2001 and 2004, but it increased last year when 16 workers and one contractor were injured.