Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

As survivor lingers, inquiry begins

By wire services
Published January 7, 2006

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - As the victims' families made plans for the first of the funerals, officials worked Friday to purge the Sago Mine of poisonous gases and allow investigators to learn what sparked the blast and how the miners spent their final hours.

Meanwhile, doctors said the disaster's lone survivor likely was reached just in time by rescuers, because his lungs were starting to fill up with dust and gases. In the hour before he was discovered, Randal McCloy Jr., 26, lost the ability to cough, sneeze or otherwise control his airway, said Dr. Richard Shannon, speaking for a team of doctors treating McCloy.

The dust and low-lying gases that settled in McCloy's lungs as he lay on his side caused inflammation in his left lung, Shannon said, adding that stabilizing the inflammation will be important for getting the miner off a ventilator.

"That does constitute a serious issue. . . . We are working very diligently with keeping those airways open," Shannon said.

McCloy was taken by ambulance Thursday from a West Virginia hospital to Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital, where he was in critical condition in a medically induced coma with brain damage and other injuries from oxygen deprivation.

Doctors said it will take time before the extent of the brain damage is known. But Shannon said McCloy's heart is functioning properly and his blood test results are improving.

"These are two very, very important milestones as we progress," Shannon said.

As the investigation into the tragedy continued, workers on Friday began drilling three ventilation holes into the Sago Mine. But International Coal Group chief executive Ben Hatfield said it could be days before the first investigators go in.

"There are so many things we don't know about what went wrong," Hatfield said. "We don't want to put any more people at risk until we know answers."

The Mine Safety and Health Administration appointed an eight-person team to investigate Monday's blast that killed one miner immediately and left 12 others trapped more than two miles inside. Only McCloy was alive when they were found nearly 42 hours later, huddled together behind a plastic curtain erected to keep out deadly carbon monoxide.

Investigators said they are looking into all possibilities, including that lightning ignited naturally occurring methane gas or coal dust.

The accident took place after the mine had been closed for the holiday weekend; the explosion was believed to have originated in an unused section of the mine.

Mine safety experts said gas can build up in a mine after just one day of idled operations, especially in the winter, when the barometric pressure drops. Also, the metal casings of natural gas wells above a mine can conduct an electrical current into the ground.

"We've had lightning strikes cause accidents in mines, and they're very disconcerting because they do just what this did. They go down and blow the seals out," said J. Davitt McAteer, who oversaw MSHA during the Clinton administration.

A transcript of radio traffic with emergency workers Tuesday night when itwas believed that 12 trapped coal miners were found alive.

11:48 p.m.

VOICE 1: "7472."

VOICE 2: "Go ahead, Matt."

VOICE 1: "You might as well just stand still right where you're at, Gary. They did find them, and they're all okay, I guess, so, I think we might be transporting them. I'm not exactly sure, but we're stuck right here."

VOICE 1: "10-4, Matt."

11:54 p.m.

VOICES: (inaudible)

VOICE 1: "And what am I telling them?"

VOICE 2: (inaudible) "Twelve, and they're bringing them out."

VOICE 1: "And they're all alive?"

VOICE 2: "Uh, as far as I know (inaudible)."

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Last modified January 7, 2006, 01:25:29]