Coal Mines have always been a dangerous thing. Working in them are a death waiting to happen. Last Monday in West Virginia, twenty-nine coal mine workers died. This happened when a devastating mine blew in the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. This has been reported that this has been the worst explosion in a coal mine since 1970, when thirty-eight people were killed in Hyden, Kentucky.
They were able to pull seven dead miners out right away, but they had to pull out of the mine because of the dangerous gases that were in the mine. After pulling out, they figured out that they passed by four other miners when they pulled the other seven miners out. With the knowledge that they had on the four miners, they hoped that they were able to get to a safe refuge chamber that was stocked with water, food, and oxygen. Then the bad news came that they did not get to the chamber. When the rescue miners went in there right away, they were not able to locate the first four miners, because of all the smoke, dust, and debris in the air. Also, the rescue miners could not move around very well with all the boulders and other obstacles in their way.
They have not stated what had caused the blast, but they think that there was extremely high levels of methane gas located within the mine. This place has been fined before for having a high amount of methane gas located within the mines and made them pull their men out for a while. Obama stated that, "We can not bring back those men that we lost. We need to do a better job in taking precautionary steps so these explosions do not happen again." Miners that were able to escape from the mine said, "You'll never, ever forget, but you have to go on."
This really puts a toll on the families. Everyday these mine workers question themselves if they are doing the right thing by putting themselves in a dangerous condition all the time. Most of them do it for the great money, but is it really worth it for the dangerous conditions and the health problems that many of the workers get? I think that this is getting out of control with the amount of lives that we are losing and the amount of problems that we are having these mines. We need to find a better way in order to protect the people that are working for us in these mines.
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This article amazes me because who would have thought twenty-nine coal miners could die all at once. Like stated "You'll never, ever forget, but you have to go on." How will those families who lost their loved ones go on with their lives thinking my loved one died from working on a coal mine. I think that these mines should be operated in a different way, a way were people can not get hurt. We are in the year 2010 and we can see so much technology coming out. Why cant something help with coal mining?
ReplyDeleteAh I heard about the mine exploding and killing some miners. I heard that their could still be four survivors but didn't here if they died or not. That's really sad the four didn't make it to the safe room. The mine should have been more careful with the high level of methane gas. They shouldn't have let the miners back in until the mine was completely free from methane gas. That is very true, that you have to move on.
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