The men killed were Richard Mount, 37; David Abel, 47; and Harry Roush III, 23. Two workers were hospitalized with second-degree burns and other injuries after deputies and paramedics went into the shaft to rescue them. Lacking the proper training or equipment, the first volunteer firefighter crew on the scene did not venture into the shaft. Mine rescue crews arrived at the site five and a half hours later.

All five killed or injured were from the coalfields of Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley.

The 24-foot-wide shaft was being driven for Consol Energy’s McElroy mine, located 25 miles south of Wheeling in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. The construction crew was employed by Central Cambria Drilling, a mine construction company from Pennsylvania.

At the time of the disaster, the crew was within 60 feet of the coal seam, which is known to be gassy. Investigators said they were using acetylene torches and probably struck a pocket of methane gas.  
 
Dangers for contract workers
The disaster highlights ongoing safety problems with Consol Energy and the contract company, and underlined the perils faced by contract workers. According to government figures more than 180 such workers were killed while working on mine property between 1990 and 1998. Half of those deaths were in West Virginia.

A wave of deaths in 2001 led to a study on mine safety by Davitt McAteer, a former official of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). He pointed to the safety hazards associated with coal operators’ increased use of contractors and proposed that mine owners be held accountable for contractors’ actions.

With 10 of the top 20 underground coal mines, Consol is the fourth largest coal company in the United States and the largest underground producer. McElroy is Consol’s largest unionized operation and is slated for a significant expansion in production. Across the state line in Pennsylvania are the company’s nonunion Bailey and Enlow Fork operations, the biggest underground mines in the country.

Contract workers were involved in 14 accidents at McElroy last year, which is more accidents than among the 400 miners Consol directly employs. The mine has been cited for hundreds of violations by MSHA officials including 850 in 2001 and 555 in 2002. One miner was killed in a 2001 accident.

Consol has had other accidents involving contractors in the northern Appalachian coalfields. In March 1992 three contractors and a Consol engineer were killed in an air shaft explosion at the nearby Blacksville No. 1 mine.

Four years later, after an accident involving contractors tearing down a preparation plant in the Morgantown area, Consol signed an agreement with MSHA to better scrutinize the safety practices of its employers.

In 2000 a worker for a nonunion contractor was killed at another area Consol mine, Blacksville No. 2. At the time the union was seeking to organize these workers, having won union recognition in a case with another Blacksville contractor.

MSHA’s report on this death pointed to the failure of these contractors to ensure that new employees receive adequate training.  
 
Contractor’s dismal safety record
Central Cambria Drilling has had 11 other accidents at McElroy since 2001 and was cited for serious safety violations at Consol’s Bailey operation in 2000. In six of the last eight years, Central Cambria reported an accident rate far higher than the national average.

Consol vice-president Thomas Hoffman said, "I’m generally aware that in 2000 [the contractor] had a bad year safety-wise. But in most the other years, their safety record was certainly within the bounds of what we consider comfortable to do business with."

Teams of inspectors from West Virginia’s Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training and MSHA are investigating the disaster. MSHA’s head reported that they had yet to find any sign that the workers were performing the testing for methane that is required when torches are to be used.

State inspectors said they inspected the work site in October and November last year and found no problems.

Last year, after 22 miners were killed in mining accidents in the first eight months, the annual total reached 27. This is a low for mining fatalities and comes after mining deaths had been climbing three years in a row from 29 in 1998 up to 42 in 2001. What should be considered alongside the 2002 total is that 18 miners narrowly escaped with their lives after the flooding of the Quecreek mine in Pennsylvania last July.  
 
 
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