Fire in Kentucky Coal Mine Kills 10, Injures 3

A flash fire in a western Kentucky coal mine killed 10 miners and injured three today in the nation’s worst mine disaster in five years, authorities said.

State Police said 13 miners were near the fire at Pyro Mining Co.’s William Station mine, 140 miles southwest of Louisville, and three escaped with burns. Rescue teams were sent into the shaft to remove the bodies of the 10 others, Trooper Ed Brady said.

The flash fire occurred about 9:30 a.m. as a mining machine was being dismantled to be moved, said Frank O’Gorman, a spokesman for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

MSHA spokesman Sam Stafford said a flash fire is caused when a jet of methane, or natural gas, ignites “like a flame thrower.” Methane is found naturally in coal seams, but ventilation systems normally keep it below explosive concentrations.

The exact cause of the fire was not immediately known. But Stafford said such fires are usually caused when a piece of equipment hits stone and causes a spark.

O’Gorman said the dead were believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The injured were taken to Union County Hospital in Morganfield for treatment of burns, Brady said. Their conditions were not immediately known.

Nancy Toombs, a secretary for state Commissioner of Mines and Minerals Willard Stanley, said, “There’s nothing to indicate the walls have collapsed or we have anyone trapped underground.”

The accident was the nation’s worst mine disaster since 27 miners died in 1984 at the Wilberg Mine at Orangeville, Utah, O’Gorman said.

The William Station Mine employs about 350 miners.