Saturday, April 10, 2010
Miners Found...House And Senate Plan Hearings
WEST VIRGINIA....
Both the House and Senate plan to hold hearings examining possible causes of the explosion that killed 29 workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine. Monday's blast is the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Kentucky. The discovery of the final four bodies on Friday ended days of searches by rescue crews that repeatedly battled poisonous gases and smoke inside the mine. Twenty-eight of the dead were Massey employees, and one was a contract worker. Kevin Stricklin, coal administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, says smoke and the conditions were so dire with dust after the blast that rescuers didn't realize until late Friday they had walked past the bodies of the four missing miners on the first day without seeing them. Once the bodies are recovered, MSHA and West Virginia regulators plan a joint investigation that could take up to a year.
Both the House and Senate plan to hold hearings examining possible causes of the explosion that killed 29 workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine. Monday's blast is the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Kentucky. The discovery of the final four bodies on Friday ended days of searches by rescue crews that repeatedly battled poisonous gases and smoke inside the mine. Twenty-eight of the dead were Massey employees, and one was a contract worker. Kevin Stricklin, coal administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, says smoke and the conditions were so dire with dust after the blast that rescuers didn't realize until late Friday they had walked past the bodies of the four missing miners on the first day without seeing them. Once the bodies are recovered, MSHA and West Virginia regulators plan a joint investigation that could take up to a year.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 9:15 AM 
