Farmington remembers tragedy; Monongah’s next

The plethora of coal mine tragedy memorials is a constant reminder of how dangerous coal mining is.

Farmington #9 mine got its turn on the 49^th anniversary of the 1968 explosion that killed 78 miners. The service was held at Flat Run Memorial.

19 miners remain entombed in the #9 mine, which has been designated a permanent cemetery for them.

The Monongah memorial observance for the 1907 twin explosions that killed 362 officially and maybe more, depending on who you believe, will be December 6. The day is National Miners’ Day, selected because of the Monongah tragedy.

In 1907 there were 3,242 coal miners killed, which led to the creation of the Federal Mine Safety Bureau.

Monongah Mayor Greg Vandetta said the 110^th anniversary events will begin with an 8:30 a.m. Mass at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Churchgoers and others will come to Monongah Town Hall to continue the ceremonies.

The mine that blew up twice – in 1954 and 1968

Sunday, November 13 will be the 62^nd anniversary of the 1954 explosion that killed 16 men in the Jamison Coal and Coke Company No. 9 mine in Farmington.

14 years later, in 1968, there were 78 killed in the SAME mine, which by then was owned by Mountaineer Coal Company, a division of Consolation Coals.

Among the 21 miners rescued from the Mountaineer Coal Company's No. 9 mine was Matt Menas, Jr., whose father was killed in the same mine 14 years earlier.

Congress had enough. It passed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 to tighten safety regulations in coal mines. U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall said: “The people of this country no longer will accept the disgraceful health and safety record that has characterized this major industry."

Others rescued in 1968 besides Menas were Byron Jones, Nathaniel Stephens, Charles Biafore, Nick Rose, Roy Wilson, James Herron, Paul Sabo, Walter Slavikosky, Henry Conway, Nezer Vandergrift, Ralph Starkey, Lewis Lake, George Wilson, Alva Davis, Raymond Parker, Robert Bland, Robert Mullen, Gary Martin, Charles Crumm and Brad Hillberry.

Last year, 28 coal miners died. That’s the lowest total in history.

362 was the official death toll for the Monongah mines explosion December 6, 1907. That’s still the worst coal mining death total in American history. 3,242 miners died in our country in 1907 in coal mining explosions. More than 100,000 coal miners have died underground. That doesn’t include surface mining.

1,549 coal miners died in 1942 in a China coal mine explosion in the Benxihu Honkeiko mine.

No. 9 families sue over disabled alarms

78 coal miners died in 1968 when Farmington No. 9 mine blew up, the worst mine death toll in the past 48 years. It accounted for 25 percent of the 311 coal miners who died in 1968.

48 years later, the families of the victims are suing Consolidation Coal Company, claiming that employees disabled alarms that would have warned the miners to get out before the explosion.

Consol paid $10,000 per body to the families. But seven widows sued and settled 14 years later for 246 woody, hilly acres of land above No. 9.

Two years after the tragedy, federal mine inspector Larry Layne notified his superiors that an unidentified Consolidation electrician told him that an alarm that was supposed to be connected to a fan pushing dangerous methane gas out of the mine had been disabled.

If the fan stopped, the alarm would shut off power to the mine within minutes, alerting miners to evacuate.

The dead miners’ families didn’t know about that fan being disabled till it was revealed in West Virginia University journalism professor Bonnie Stewart’s 2011 book about the disaster. The families were appalled.

21 of the miners who were working at the time escaped.

This was a mine where 16 died in a 1954 explosion.

When No. 9 exploded, Consolidation was owned by Continental Oil, which changed its name to Consol Energy, and sold five mines and No. 9 liabilities to Murray Energy in 2013.

Murray Energy has been cited for thousands of violations by federal inspectors over the years.

To read the article about the lawsuit, click on http://www.timeswv.com/news/lawsuit-seeks-to-fix-blame-for-no-mine-disaster/article_5f9f3232-7279-11e6-b0f5-7708558dcacb.html

'Brutal coal baron' gets year in prison

Don Blankenship

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, 66, who ran one of the most dangerous mines in West Virginia that killed 29 miners when Upper Big Branch exploded in 2010, was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $250,000, the maximum allowed in both categories by U.S. District Judge Irene Berger in Charleston.

A federal jury convicted Matewan High and Marshall University grad Blankenship on Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch. The jury acquitted him of felonies that could have extended his sentence to 30 years.

At Upper Big Branch, four investigations found worn and broken cutting equipment created a spark that ignited accumulations of coal dust and methane gas. Water sprayers were broken and clogged, allowing an inferno to erupt.

This by a company that had revenue of $3.2 billion a year. It earned Blankenship the label of "brutal coal baron."

In 2009, Massey Energy, the sixth largest coal company in America, was fined $382,000 for "serious" unrepentant violations. A month earlier, authorities cited the mine for 57 safety infractions. The mine received two safety citations the day before the explosion, 600 in the preceding 18 months and 1,342 in the preceding five years.

Coal law changes: Saving jobs, profits. Lives?

It’s understandable that ire and eyebrows were raised when what was labeled the Coal Jobs and Safety Act became law in West Virginia.

After all, West Virginia has had more coal mine deaths than any other state for six consecutive years.

West Virginia is where the worst coal mine tragedy in American history happened, in Monongah in 1907, when 362 officially -- but more than 500 according to the gravediggers and the late Father Everett Briggs – died in a town of then-3,000 people.

“I’m just absolutely shocked that this industry has this much control that for the first time in (recent) history the governor signs a bill into law that rolls back safety,” Del. Mike Caputo (D-Marion) told MetroNews.

The United Mine Workers Union and other labor groups have maintained Senate Bill 357 will put coal miners in danger especially when it comes to provisions about moving mining equipment.

West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney insists that the new law is not a safety rollback but a needed update to help coal mined in West Virginia become more competitive with coal mined in other states.

But it does lower West Virginia’s mining rules to federal levels, so there’s no argument that it’s a safety rollback.

It was the deaths of 3,242 American miners in 1907, including explosions 13 days apart in Monongah and Van Meter, Pennsylvania, that led to the creation of the Federal Mine Bureau that set up safety standards. Van Meter suffered 239 deaths.

It was just too horrible to ignore any more, so laws were passed to try to avoid such calamities.

While annual coal mining deaths numbered more than 1,000 a year in the early part of the 20th century, they decreased to an average of about 451 annual fatalities in the 1950s, and to 141 in the 1970s.

From 2006-2010, the yearly average number of fatalities in coal mining decreased to 35. In 2009, there were 18 recorded coal mining deaths, a record low number.

Fatalities increased to 48 in 2010, the worst yet since 1992, with Upper Big Branch Mine claiming 29.  In 2011, 21 coal miners died; in 2012, another 19 coal miners were killed.

In 2006, 47 miners were killed, including 12 at West Virginia's Sago Mine.

After Congress in 2006 passed sweeping safety legislation the deaths fell to 34 in 2007 and 30 in 2008.

The last time more than 100 people died in the nation's coal mines was 1984, when 125 miners were killed.

Over the past 13 years, West Virginia has the most coal mining deaths of any state, with 134.