Air inside mine now appears safe; rescuers might enter soon

Naoma, West Virginia (News Terupdate) - Air samples from the mine where 25 miners were killed Monday are no longer explosive, and rescuers may soon begin searching for four unaccounted-for miners, a federal official said late Wednesday.

"We've seen a steady drop, a slow drop," Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, told reporters about the concentrations of the three explosive gases. "The numbers now indicate that we're out of the explosive range."

The decision to send rescue teams inside will be made if samples taken from the bottom of the mine confirm the initial results, he said.

"Our first intent is to look for the four miners that are unaccounted for," he said.

Six five-person rescue teams were on standby and ready to move, he said.

If an explosive mix of air or heavy smoke is discovered inside the mine, the rescue teams would be pulled from the mine and nitrogen gas would be poured into it in an attempt to make the atmosphere inert, he said.

Though the rescue teams will be carrying their own oxygen, "there's a hope that they wouldn't have to use it," Stricklin said. Still, he added, "They have to be prepared to go into bad air."

The plan is for the rescue teams to head directly to two refuge chambers about five miles from the mine entrance where any survivors would likely have holed up, he said.

If the plan fails to materialize, rescuers have a Plan B: they are drilling a hole above one of the refuge chambers with plans to lower cameras to determine if it has been activated, he said.

Earlier Wednesday, air samples taken from inside the Upper Big Branch South Mine showed that levels of dangerous gases were still too high to allow rescuers to enter.

At 4 a.m., a drill pierced the area of the mine where four unaccounted-for miners are believed to be located, Stricklin said.

The first sample showed about 14,000 parts per million of carbon monoxide, 10,000 parts per million of hydrogen -- both levels considered high -- and 3 percent methane, he said. Though the latter reading by itself would not necessarily be dangerous, the combination with the other gases "puts it in an area close" to being explosive, he said.

At one point, gases from the first hole began affecting the drillers, so tubing was run to vent the exhaust away from the drill operators, Stricklin said.

"The only chance ... we still have yet is if they could have made it to the chambers," West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said.

If that happened, then the miners would have time on their side, since each chamber is equipped with enough air and supplies to keep 15 miners alive for 96 hours, he said.

Stricklin said workers need an atmosphere containing less than 50 parts per million of carbon monoxide, at least 19.5 percent oxygen, and no more than 1 percent methane. Hydrogen levels in a normal mine are zero, he said.

The missing and dead miners' families have agreed with experts that rescuers cannot enter the mine until the air inside is safe, Manchin said.

Plans had called for just four holes to be drilled into the mine, but on Wednesday, officials said a fifth hole would be drilled to speed the ventilation process. Four of the holes are for ventilation, and the other is to listen for signs of life.

At least 25 miners died in Monday's explosion at the Upper Big Branch South Mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, West Virginia. Rescue teams were forced to turn back Tuesday because of unsafe levels of methane and carbon monoxide, which posed a risk of a second explosion.

Thirty-one men were working in the mine at the time of the blast Monday afternoon, said Chris Adkins, chief operating officer for Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine. The bodies of seven miners were removed, and 18 more bodies were found underground but not removed.

Officials said that was because rescue teams were focused on finding survivors.

Of the two miners who were hospitalized, one was "doing extremely well" and the other was in intensive care, Manchin said. He did not give their names and said their families had requested privacy.

Authorities believe they know where all four of the unaccounted-for miners were working at the time of the blast, officials have said.

Relatives "know the odds are not in our favor" of finding any of the four alive, Manchin said, "... but that's what we're still holding on to."

The 18 dead miners were in an area where longwall cutting was taking place. The technique uses a large grinder to extract the coal, which creates large amounts of coal dust and methane. Both are explosive.

While the cause of Monday's blast remained unknown, the deaths turned a harsh spotlight on the safety record of Massey, which has paid record fines for safety and environmental violations.

Federal officials cited the mine for two safety violations on Monday, though it was not clear whether the citations were issued before or after the explosion.

According to MSHA records, one of the violations referred to escapeway maps; the other referred to splicing of trailing cables.

Massey did not respond immediately Wednesday to a call for reaction

Massey CEO Don Blankenship on Tuesday expressed puzzlement about what could have caused the blast. "I think everyone thought we had proper ventilation," Blankenship told CNN. "Of course, we don't know 100 percent sure what happened yet, so we can't speculate on it."

He said Massey's mines "are typically in better shape than others that are in our area or in the country. ... Our creativity on safety is second to none."

The company operates 44 underground and surface mines and controls 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.

Do you live near the mine or know one of the victims? Let us know

Three other deaths have occurred in the mine over the past 12 years. This year alone, the mine was cited for more than 100 safety violations, including ventilation violations, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration records.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-West Virginia, said the mine appears to be a "bad apple, there's no question about it, because of the history of violations, including as late as March 30 of this year."

He said Massey has a "rather maverick reputation" and has pulled itself out of organizations including the West Virginia Mining Association. But he acknowledged the company's charitable contributions and its community effort -- providing jobs and support for the area's economy.

Monday's explosion was the deadliest U.S. mining disaster in 25 years. State and federal officials have pledged a full investigation into its cause.

People associated with Massey Energy, including Blankenship, have donated more than $307,000 to federal candidates since the 1990 election cycle, with 91 percent going to Republican candidates, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

In 2004, Blankenship spent $3 million to support a campaign by Brent Benjamin, who successfully ran for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. At the time, Massey was involved in a business dispute with a rival mining company, and a jury in 2002 had awarded the other company, Harman Mining, $50 million.

By the time Massey appealed the decision in 2006, Benjamin was on the court. Benjamin refused to recuse himself from the appeal, and then voted to overturn the jury's verdict. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled last year that Benjamin should have recused himself.

Source : CNN

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