5 miners die after Ky. coal-mine explosion

Prayers for dead and living
On Sunday, the community around the Holmes Mill area prayed for the dead miners and their families at regular worship services.

About two dozen people gathered at the Closplint Church of God in Harlan County, not far from the mine.

“We lost some friends yesterday. Some wives lost husbands. Some sons lost fathers. It’s really sad,” said Stevie Sizemore, a Harlan County miner who said he was friends with all the victims.

Since Kentucky Darby took over as operator in May 2001, there had been 10 injuries and no deaths at the mine until Saturday, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, which had been in the process of a regular inspection of the mine.

Saturday’s explosion was the deadliest mining incident in the state since 1989, when 10 miners died in a western Kentucky mine blast, state officials said.

The national death toll from coal mining accidents is now 31 this year, with 10 of them in Kentucky.

Local magistrate Chad Brock said the deaths would touch many lives. “There’s not going to be a family that’s not affected in some way,” he said. “You either know them or you’re kin to them.”

‘A horrific year’
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts urged state and federal mine officials to “redouble their inspection and enforcement activities, starting now.”

“This tragedy only compounds what has already been a horrific year in America’s coal mines,” Roberts said in a statement.

Mine safety issues have increasingly been a key concern of lawmakers.

Late last week, a key Senate committee endorsed a bill to make coal mining safer. The legislation would require miners to have at least two hours of oxygen available instead of one and would require mine operators to store extra oxygen packs along escape routes.

The bill also would require mines to have two-way wireless communications and tracking systems in place within three years. It now goes to the full Senate.

Miners press for help
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a key architect of the bill, said the explosion “underscores the need for swift action to improve the safety of our nation’s coal mines.”

The Mine Safety and Health Administration recently issued a temporary rule requiring coal operators to give miners extra oxygen, but miners have been pressing Congress for a permanent fix.

In the Jan. 2 Sago explosion, one man was killed in the blast and 11 others died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Randal McCloy Jr., the only miner who survived, has said at least four of the miners’ air packs did not work, forcing the men to share.

According to a 2004 report by the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing, there were 608 coal mines in the state, including 296 underground mines.

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