Aracoma Alma Mine accident

The Aracoma Alma Mine accident occurred when a conveyor belt in the Aracoma Alma Mine No. 1 at Melville in Logan County, West Virginia caught fire. The conveyor belt ignited on the morning of January 19, 2006, pouring smoke through the gaps in the wall and into the fresh air passageway that the miners were supposed to use for their escape, obscuring their vision and ultimately leading to the death of two of them.

If the wall sections had been in place, they would have prevented any exchange of air between the conveyor belt and the fresh air intake, the primary source of air for workers inside the mine. Instead, investigators now believe, smoke flooded into the air intake, which also serves as an escape route, disorienting two of the miners, who became lost and died in the fire.

The two men, Ellery Hatfield, 47 and Don Bragg, 33, died of carbon monoxide poisoning when they became separated from 10 other members of their crew. The others held hands and edged through the air intake amid dense smoke.

Federal and state investigations into the fire are continuing. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration issued an advisory to its 11 district offices to check for any missing stoppings in other mines. Inspectors were advised that two such walls -- each convert|18|ft|m long and convert|6|ft|m wide -- were missing in the Alma mine when investigators arrived.

The mine is owned by Massey Energy.

The disaster followed national media attention of the Sago Mine disaster, which occurred earlier in the month.

References

*cite web | title= Accidents at Logan County mine | work=Charleston Daily Mail | url=http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2006012043/ | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= Bodies of 2 Miners Found After W.Va. Fire | work=ABC News | url=http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1529802 | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= Bodies of miners found | work=CNN.com | url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/21/mine.fire/index.html | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= Melville shows its spirit in mine accident | work=Huntington Herald-Dispatch | url=http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/NEWS01/601210322/1001/NEWS | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= Smoke Hampers Rescuers Searching for Two Inside West Virginia Mine | work=New York Times | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/national/21mine.html | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= Trapped US coal miners found dead | work=BBC News and Current Affairs | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4636098.stm | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= UPDATE 4-Two W.Virginia miners dead; governor vows action | work=Reuters | url=http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-01-21T232327Z_01_N21248190_RTRIDST_0_MINE-FIRE-UPDATE-4.XML | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= With Mine Fire Contained, Rescue Efforts Are Expanded | work=New York Times | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/national/22mine.html | accessdate=January 21 | accessyear=2006
*cite web | title= Missing wall key to Alma mine accident that killed two | work=Post-gazette.com | url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06082/675154.stm
accessdate=March 23 | accessyear=2006

See also

*List of disasters
*2006 Sago Mine disaster
*Buffalo Creek flood

External links

* [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3602126.html 2 coal miners found dead. Rescuers battled heat in miner search since underground fire Thursday evening]