Death in Consol No. 9

At 5:25 one morning last week, 99 coal miners on the midnight-to-8-a.m. "cateye" shift were working the rich bituminous veins of the Consolidation Coal Co.'s No. 9 mine in northern West Virginia. Suddenly, deep in the earth, an explosion thundered through the eight-mile-long labyrinth of shafts and tunnels. Shock waves rippled outward for miles, jolting the Marion County mining community into frightened wakefulness. At daybreak, thick clouds of greasy black smoke billowed 150 ft. into the grey morning air.

Before the day was over, 21 men had made it to the frozen surface; but 78 others still remained trapped, some as much as 600 ft. below the ground. As hope diminished for their rescue, the disaster looked to be the worst mining accident in the U.S. since 119 men died in a 1951 explosion in West Frankfort, Ill.* Muffled explosions shook Consol No. 9 for three days, preventing rescue workers from going in after possible survivors. No one could say what set off the first blast, but once the fire was under way, it spread rapidly, feeding on combustible coal dust and deadly methane. Though the mine had been checked regularly with gas-measuring safety devices, miners called No. 9 "hot" before the explosion. William Park, a U.S. Bureau of Mines official, confirmed that it was "extremely gassy."

Ora Haught, 27 years a miner and brother-in-law of one of the missing men, complained that the mine was "filled with gas" and "something was bound to happen." Tony Boyle, president of the United Mine Workers lo cal, demurred. "This happens to be one of the better companies as far as safety is concerned," he said. "I share the grief. But as long as we mine coal, there is always this inherent danger of explosion." For relatives of the missing miners, huddled in their parked pickup trucks or on folding chairs in the grimy company store, that was scant comfort.

*The worst ever in the U.S.: a 1907 explosion at Monongah, W. Va., a mere dozen miles from the site of last week's blast, which killed 361. Since that year, 87,850 U.S. miners have died in accidents on the job.

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