According to press reports, relatives of the miners who were killed in the disaster were handed a two-inch-thick copy of the report—only one per family—and were then set to be ushered into a prearranged press conference. Instead the miners' relatives demanded time to read the material and some walked out in protest.

The mine agency then cancelled the press conference and declared that its report, which it had published on its website hours before, was withdrawn.

“The families were dissatisfied with the information presented today,” said Samantha Lewis, according to the Charleston Gazette. Lewis’s husband David was killed in the disaster. “We didn’t feel we had time to review the information,” she said.

The disaster unfolded January 2, when an explosion ripped through an abandoned section of the Sago Mine near Buckhannon, West Virginia. The blast instantly killed one miner and trapped 12 others. By the time rescue workers reached them more than 40 hours later, all but one of the 12 had died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

State investigators claimed that lightning caused the explosion. Their report, however, concedes they don’t know “the specific mechanisms” that made that possible.

In March, the International Coal Group, which owns the Sago Mine, sought to wash its hands of responsibility for the conditions that led to the deaths of the miners by declaring that the accident was “an unpredictable and highly unusual accident” caused by lightning.

“They may be trying to blame Mother Nature for this, but there are so many other factors to blame even if it was an explosion ignited by lightning,” said Catherine McGuire, an attorney representing three of the families of the deceased miners.  
 
 
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