Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 1, 1993 TAG: 9301010105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AMONATE LENGTH: Medium
MINING RESUMES AFTER EXPLOSION
Mining resumed Thursday at a Consolidation Coal Co. mine where five miners were burned by an ignition of methane gas, a company official said.Federal, state, and union inspectors also returned to the area where the blast took place at the Amonate No. 31 mine, said Paul Kvederis, spokesman for CONSOL Inc., the parent company of Pittsburgh-based Consolidation Coal.
"The section that was affected is not working," Kvederis said. "The investigation will be ongoing."
The workers were injured Tuesday as they mined coal 225 feet underground and 2,000 feet into the mine beneath the Virginia-West Virginia border, said CONSOL spokeswoman Rebecca Berkey-Ludlow.
Joe Curry, one of the injured miners, said he feared for his life as flames surrounded him.
"In a methane explosion, usually you don't make it," Curry said.
Curry said miners were preparing to set wooden timbers to keep the mine's ceiling from collapsing upon the removal of coal pillars, which support the roof in a previously mined area. He said a continuous mining machine, which shears away the coal, was turned off.
Curry said he believes the roof fell where the coal pillars had been removed, releasing explosive methane gas. At the same time, falling stone may have struck the mine's old roof bolts to create a spark, he said.
"The first thing I felt was the concussion. Then I heard the noise, and I said to myself, that's a real big [roof] fall," Curry said. "About the time I said that to myself, I felt my hair singe. And then I saw the fire.
"I didn't look back. I just kept looking the way the fire was blowing," he said. "I knew if I'd looked back I'd have got it right in the face."
Curry said he dropped to his hands and knees. After the fire passed, he crawled through smoke and dust to an area where fresh air blew into the mine and found his co-workers.
"Some of them were so bad they didn't even know where they were," Curry said.
He said the crew walked back through the tunnel about 800 feet to a mine vehicle that carried them outside.
Curry, 40, of Berwind, W.Va., was in fair condition Thursday at Humana-Clinch Valley Hospital in Richlands, recovering from smoke inhalation and facial burns, hospital officials said.
The other miners, all of whom suffered facial and hand burns, were closer to the flashpoint, Curry said.
All remained hospitalized Thursday.