No.9: The 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster

Dangerous History

Dangerous History No one should have died in 1968 in the No.9 mine. When Emilio Megna and his buddies went underground for the last time, the coal industry and its regulators knew well what causes mine disasters and how to prevent them. They had learned the hard lessons over and over again during prior decades. In the 1800s and early 1900s, injuries and deaths in the mines were common , and most people simply accepted that fact.1 The coal industry was a mighty political force, which had completely blocked federal regulation and had kept state laws and enforcement at a minimum. West Virginia was one of the first states to regulate the industry, hiring its first mine inspector in 1883 and adopting its first significant coal mining law in 1887, a year after the state’s first recorded major disaster in the Mt. Brook Mine in Newburg.2 The open flames on the cap lights the men wore had ignited a pocket of methane gas, blowing the inside of the mine apart.“When the work of exploration began it was found that the whole force of the mine, 39 men and boys, were stark and cold in death.”3 The laws, however, did not stop the carnage. Men and boys continued to die in the mines, a dozen here, two or three dozen there. Large numbers of miners were killed by roof falls, as the ceilings of the tunnels gave way and covered them with coal and slate. No woman knew if her man or sons would come home from work from one day to the next. In coal country, miners were expendable, more so than the horses, oxen, mules and goats 2 DANGEROUS HISTORY 11 that worked underground with them.As many coal miners have noted,coal companies had to buy another mule, but a man, well, they could easily find another one. What happened in 1907, however, could not be ignored. That year, an estimated 3,232 of the country’s 680,000 coal miners died on the job.4 The worst coal mine disaster in U.S. history occurred on December 6, 1907, in Monongah, West Virginia. Government records show that the Monongah explosion killed at least 358 miners.5 Some experts, however, believe the number was much higher because mining companies kept poor records of the people working underground. In his book Monongah, Davitt McAteer, a former federal coal mine official, estimates that as many as 578 men and boys may have perished that day.6 That same December, 239 men died in a horrific explosion in the dusty, In the 1800s and early 1900s, mining companies often used animals, such as goats, to pull coal cars in and out of the mines. Courtesy of John Brock. 12 CHAPTER 2 gaseous Darr Mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania; 34 miners died in another Pennsylvania mine disaster; 11 died in a New Mexico pit; and 57 miners died in an Alabama mine explosion. The December death toll that year was so high that the month was dubbed “Bloody December.”7 At that time, coal mining was one of the most dangerous and disabling industrial occupations in the country. Following Bloody December, federal officials began a serious study of coal mine explosions. They already knew that coal naturally emits methane gas. They knew that a spark or the open flame from a coal miner’s cap could ignite the gas and set off an explosion. They also knew that an ignition source could cause coal dust to explode. They knew that even a small explosion could become a major disaster: It could stir up and ignite loose coal dust, which would explode and stir up more coal dust. As long as there was loose dust or certain concentrations of methane in its path, one explosion could set an entire mine ablaze. What most people in the coal industry may not have known then, but would soon learn, was that under the right conditions, coal dust thrown into suspension can self-ignite and set off a powerful explosion. In 1910, the newly formed U.S. Bureau of Mines announced that finding.8 It was clear then, as it is now, that to keep miners safe, coal companies had to control both coal dust and methane gas. Over the years, the industry also learned that winter months are particularly dangerous. When cold fronts move into the mountains and...