The Upper Big Branch disaster of April 5th caused the death of 29 miners, making it the worst US mining disaster since 1970. After the bodies of the four missing miners were discovered Friday, April 9th, the mission changed from rescue to retrieval. The State Journal has information on the deceased and funeral dates.
The cause of the explosion has yet to be determined and an independent investigation is underway, which will include MSHA’s involvement in reporting violations as well as the role of surface mine blasting in contributing to the buildup of methane gas concentrations in the Upper Big Branch Mine prior to the explosion.
Since the explosion, federal inspectors have found over 60 safety violations at 30 different underground coal mines owned by Massey Energy. The inspectors have contributed the disaster to preventable build-ups of methane gas and coal dust. Since April 5th, Massey’s Solid Energy No. 1 Mine in Kentucky has been cited three times for coal dust build-up. “That’s very troubling,” MSHA Administrator Kevin Stricklin said, “Pitiful.”
One family of a deceased miner has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Massey Energy and their subsidy company, Performance Coal, the operator of the Upper Big Branch Mine.
The Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, a company that owns 1,000 shares of Massey Energy Co. stock, has sued Massey claiming that the disaster shows that the company is neglecting safety measures.
Massey CEO, Don Blankenship’s response has been that, “Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process. There are violations at every coal mine in America, and (the Upper Big Branch Mine) was a mine that had violations.” This has been Don Blankenship’s attitude, as seen with the incident in 2007 at Massey Energy’s Aracoma Mine when two miners died and Don Blankenship called their deaths “statistically insignificant”.
For more information, check out NPR’s article on Massey’s poor safety record as well as The Charleston Gazette’s Coal Tattoo for continued updates and personal information on the miners who lost their lives to this tragedy.
I heard that Blankenship was on a plane once and told someone that he was “this close” (as he held his thumb and forefinger 1 inch apart) from being God. Do I detect ideas of grandiosity there? Kind of pathetic but more scary. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again. Most corporate CEO’s would not pee on their employees if they were on fire and that includes the mining company CEO’s.
Well I lost two really good friends in that mine, and I think that for Don Blankenship to have that attitude that an miners death is “statistically insignificant” is completely stupid. If Massey had that many violations, then Don Blankenship should have taken teh responsibility to have told the workers that they wouldnt be working until the mine violations have been fixed and then only should he have cleared the miners to go back into the mines. This is just my opinion and Im speaking for my dead friends too, becuase this is what i know they’d have said if they knew about the violations at Massey.