U.S. Issues Additional Citations Against Mine in Which 27 Died

Federal officials have issued additional citations against both the owner and the operator of a mine where 27 people were killed in a 1984 fire, a federal agency said Thursday as it released its final report on the disaster.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s 92-page report culminated a 2 1/2-year investigation into the Wilberg mine’s operations and supported preliminary conclusions blaming a faulty air compressor for the fire.

The Dec. 19, 1984, blaze filled tunnels in the central Utah mine with poisonous gas and cut off escape routes. Twenty-six men and one woman were killed.

Seven New Citations

Along with its final findings, the agency announced that it had issued seven additional citations for safety violations to Utah Power & Light Co., the Wilberg’s owner, and Emery Mining Corp., the former operators of the mine near Orangeville, Utah.

In March, the safety agency had issued 34 citations related to the disaster. However, the new citations concerned violations not related to the fire, agency spokeswoman Katharine Snyder said.

Utah Power spokesman John Ward said the privately held utility would probably challenge the new citations, as it already has the earlier ones. He said utility executives do not think it is proper to cite the company for problems they believe should be laid at the feet of Emery Mining.

Inspection Just Completed

The agency itself had completed an inspection of the mine just a week before the fire and “found none of the violations that they are writing up almost three years later,” Ward said.

Efforts to reach representatives of Emery Mining and the United Mine Workers of America for comment were not successful. Union officers did not return telephone calls, and phones listed for Emery were no longer in service.