Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302110048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLINTWOOD LENGTH: Medium
MINE SURVIVOR BLAMES INSPECTORS
The only survivor of December's Southmountain Coal Co. No. 3 mine explosion admits he smoked cigarettes in the mine but says he didn't think it was dangerous because state officials said the mine was "nongassy."Robert Kevin Fleming says he knows it's illegal to smoke in a mine and hasn't done so for nearly two years. But he says he never would have if federal or state authorities had told him the mine might explode.
He blamed state and federal mine inspectors for not adequately monitoring the mine for explosive methane gas and for not adequately cautioning miners about the danger.
"If there was gas in there and the inspectors never did report it, there's something wrong," Fleming says.
Fleming says he's also angry because federal and state inspectors have released reports that make it look like the eight miners who died were responsible for their own deaths.
In December, federal mine inspectors issued a nationwide safety alert after discovering evidence that some of the dead miners may have been smoking in the mine. Inspectors also revealed that someone had tampered with a methane monitor designed to detect explosive levels of methane and automatically turn off the continuous-mining machine the men were using.
Federal mine officials said the tampering and the discovery that some of the miners had cigarettes, cigarette butts and lighters were "frightening" violations of mine-safety law.
Fleming, 21, agrees he never should have smoked in the mine. But he says the real blame lies with federal and, especially, state inspectors who led miners to believe the mine was safe from methane. The state classified the mine as nongassy, which means there is little danger of explosion.
Now, Fleming says, "They are blaming it on the men . . . because it's an easy way to get out of it."
It's wrong to smoke in a mine, but that's not what allowed the methane to build up, Fleming says.
He says he'd heard talk about high methane readings at Southmountain No. 3, but never got any warning from federal or state inspectors.
As far as he knew, he says, the only real danger at the mine was from roof falls, not methane.
Fleming says he smoked only a couple of times while in the mine shortly after he started work at Southmountain No. 3 in early 1991. And, he says, he smoked in air intake passageways where fresh air was brought from the outside.
He says he quit smoking in the mine because he realized it was dangerous and because he could be fired on the spot.
Fleming says he doesn't know if other miners smoked in the mines. "We never talked about it," he says.
Under federal law, mine operators are required to conduct random pat-downs of miners to make sure they don't have smoking materials. Fleming says foreman at Southmountain occasionally did pat-downs at the beginning of shifts. But, he says, it was fairly easy to conceal cigarettes. And, he says, no pat-down was done the day of the explosion.
It's possible, Fleming says, that the miners who had smoking material with them on the day of the explosion didn't smoke in the mine. They may have just carried the items in with them. And, he says, they may have had cigarette butts in their pockets because they had smoked outside earlier and stuffed the butts in their pockets rather that toss them on the ground. "I still do that now. I put them out and put the butt in a pocket."
He says the mine operators didn't like to see trash and cigarette butts lying around.
Fleming says he never saw any other miner smoke inside Southmountain. Most miners chew tobacco when in the mine, he says.
Fleming was about 300 feet inside the mine when the explosion occurred.
The explosion, erupting from more than a mile inside the mine, hit Fleming like a double-barrel shotgun blast, throwing him against a mine wall. He crawled out of the mine despite heat that was so intense it melted the lining of his helmet. He was burned on his face and hands and was treated at the University of Virginia Hospital burn center.
Fleming is recooperating at his trailer home on Longfork Creek a few miles south of Clintwood, where several of the miners who were killed resided. His burnt hands still are dark, with a light charcoal coloring.
Fleming, who's watching his 16-month-old son, Zack, while he recovers, says he's thinking of going back into mining as soon as he's well. But, he says, he plans to work at a strip mine so he won't have to go back underground.
Keywords:
FATALITY