Melissa Lee, whose husband Jimmy Lee died at Darby, said the coal mining industry can do “so much better,” the December 15 Harlan Daily Enterprise reported. Lee said health coverage for deceased miners’ children “ought to be automatic.” She noticed several coal truck drivers who offered a nod or a wave. “I believe the men know that it could happen to them as well,” she said, adding that the picket was also held for “other miners that this could happen to.”

Lee was joined on the picket line by Claudia Cole and Stella Morris, whose husbands were killed in separate mining accidents in the last two years.

The state of Kentucky released a report December 1 on the Darby disaster. It says that a mine boss, Amon Brock, and a mine worker, Jimmy Lee, died from the blast. Three other miners—Roy Middleton, George Petra, and Paris Thomas Jr.—died from carbon monoxide poisoning. A sixth miner, Paul Ledford, survived.

The explosion was reportedly ignited by gas torches used to cut metal straps in the mine roof that ran through a seal wall. Electrical conductors are not allowed to run through seals. The open-flame torches were used in the mine’s return air tunnel, where no ignition sources are allowed.

The owners used Omega block in the seal, even though similar seals did not withstand the Sago Mine blast about five months earlier (see article above), and knew about the metal straps before the seals were built. The mine was scheduled for a return visit by a federal mine inspector. State, union, and family representatives were not allowed to question the inspector directly. He had cited the seals as being defective.

“They call it an accident, but it was really caused by negligence,” said Tony Oppegard, a mine safety lawyer who represents relatives of the four workers who died at Darby. He said the miners’ widows want to know who ordered the straps repaired.

The state report faults the construction of the seals but says nothing about the use of Omega block. Neither does it say anything about the air packs, which are of the same model as those that did not function at Sago.
 
 
Related articles:
Relatives of deceased Sago miners angry at state report  
 
 
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