Flash Fire in Kentucky Coal Mine Kills 10

Methane gas ignited in a flash “like a flame thrower” in a coal mine Wednesday, killing 10 miners in the nation’s worst coal mine disaster in five years, authorities said.

There were conflicting reports of the number of miners injured in the fire at the William Station Mine in western Kentucky, but its parent company, Costain Coal Inc., said no one was trapped underground.

The mine, run by Costain’s subsidiary, Pyro Mining Co., had been cited by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration for high levels of methane gas about two months ago, Costain President Charles Schulties acknowledged at a news conference.

The death toll made it the nation’s worst coal mine disaster since 27 miners were killed in 1984 in a mine in Utah, safety administration spokesman Frank O’Gorman said.

The ignition point of the fire apparently was near part of a mining machine that was being dismantled to be moved, he said.

Police sealed off the area around the mine and families of the dead miners were taken to a company headquarters building outside Wheatcroft, a town of about 300 people.

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

Stafford said such fires are small but “like a flame thrower.”

Methane, the major ingredient of natural gas, is found naturally in coal seams.