Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991 TAG: 9102150266
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: ST. CHARLES LENGTH: Medium
Searchers recovered the body of one man, 50-year-old mine foreman Harold David Dowell of Pennington Gap, about 1 a.m. Thursday, about nine hours after the slide.
A second body was brought out Thursday night.
Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, said rescuers had confirmed that no one survived.
Abbott said it was not known how long it would take to recover the other two bodies from the tons of debris that buried them. The names of the other victims were not disclosed Thursday night.
About 30 men from L.J.'s Coal Corp., along with about 10 officials from the state department and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, worked around the clock to reach the victims. They used sledgehammers, jackhammers and air compressors to remove rock.
Safety inspectors said chunks of rock as big as 10 feet high, 22 feet wide and 200 feet long slowed rescuers. Childress said only trained miners were being allowed into the shaft, which is 38 inches high, to search.
The roof fell in about 4 p.m. Wednesday at L.J.'s Mine No. 1 about a half-mile from the community of Pucketts Creek, between St. Charles and Pennington Gap in Lee County near the Virginia-Kentucky border.
Although roof falls are the primary cause of mining deaths, Lee County, which is primarily an agricultural county at Virginia's western tip, has not experienced many mine casualties of any kind.
"I've been here since 1982, and I can't recall anything," Childress said. The most recent multiple-death accident - from a methane explosion - came in 1983 in Pittston Coal Corp.'s McClure No. 1 mine in Dickenson County. The most recent roof fall that caused multiple fatalities happened the previous year in Russell County, Childress said.
There was no apparent explosion associated with Wednesday's roof fall, and Childress said the cause was not known. "We haven't even looked," he said. "We're devoting all our efforts to rescue and recovery."
When word of the accident spread Wednesday night in the mining counties of Southwest Virginia, people converged on the site to offer help. Most had to be turned away because there was limited space for rescue workers.
Retired miner Lee Cloud was among those who remained throughout a downpour Wednesday night at the foot of the mountain where police kept spectators, about half a mile below the mine.
He went home to Pennington Gap long enough to bring back a portable oil-burning heater, which was put inside a tent rescue workers erected Thursday afternoon.
The rain swelled the muddy water of Pucketts Creek along the road leading to the mine. People waiting for word on the remaining three men Thursday experienced periods of rain, hail, brief sunshine and finally snow.
"There was a shift that got off here from somewhere about 2 o'clock" that showed up to offer help Thursday morning, he said. "Of course, we'd all be up there if they'd let us."
Police also kept reporters away from the site Thursday. Earlier, a Bristol television newsman and cameraman had gotten to a hill overlooking the mine when mine owner Carl McAfee ordered them away and accused them of trespassing.
Lee County records show that the mine is owned by McAfee, a Norton lawyer, and Aubra Paul Dean, who operates it.
About 22 men work at the mine, eight to a shift. The fall occurred about a mile inside the mine during a shift change. Childress said as many as 11 people were underground at the time of the accident.
The funeral for Dowell, who had four children and four grandchildren, is to be held today, with a burial service Saturday.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB