Rescue teams retreat from W. Va. mine

First, it was noxious gases that kept rescue crews out of the smoking ruins of the Upper Big Branch mine in their search for four miners left unaccounted for after the worst coal mine disaster in the U.S. in 26 years.

On Friday morning, it was a spreading fire that aborted the third rescue attempt at the mine in four days, crushing fleeting hopes that miners would have somehow survived the disaster.

Weary rescue crews were evacuated from the mine early Friday after the fire was detected. The teams delivered bad news: No miners had entered one of two airtight rescue chambers that officials had hoped would provide lifesaving refuge.

That left just one chamber to be inspected for signs of life. But with that chamber behind a curtain of smoke, authorities decided to lower a camera down a bore hole to determine whether miners had reached the protective structure. Officials said that would take until mid-afternoon Friday.

At the same time, workers prepared to pump nitrogen into the mine to smother the fire and neutralize combustible and poisonous gases that had forced two previous rescue missions to abort.

As residents of tiny coal communities trudged to funeral services for several miners among the 25 killed in the explosion, both authorities and family members came to grips with the realization that nearly all hope was gone for finding anyone alive.

If no sign of life is found at the second chamber, Gov. Joe Manchin III told reporters just after first light Friday, “Our situation is very grave, and this makes it more of a recovery operation.”

The chambers have enough food, water and oxygen to sustain 15 miners for 96 hours, or four days. But because only four miners could have entered the remaining chamber, the supplies would last longer.

Mine safety officials, unsure how much more time a smaller group would have, focused on reaching the chambers within 96 hours -- by mid-afternoon Friday.

“It does not look like we will physically be able to get there based on the smoke we found this morning,” said Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Stricklin and the governor have been the public faces of the disaster, standing before television cameras several times a day for updates on a situation that has become more tenuous with every passing hour.

On Friday, the two men looked somber and weary. They had just come from breaking the latest bad news to miners’ family members, who have kept a vigil at a mine office since just after the explosion Monday afternoon.

“We had a long night and we had a difficult night,” Manchin said.

Families have been told for four days that the rescue operation is a desperate long shot. On Friday, Stricklin and Manchin said, they seemed resigned that the end was near.

“We had to walk in and explain to them that we had a situation that no one wanted, but a situation that had to be dealt with,” Manchin said.

Stricklin added: “We’ve got to do what we think is right, and unfortunately in this case it may not be getting to that rescue chamber and touching it in 96 hours.”

The mine, operated by Massey Energy Co., was shut down temporarily for safety violations 29 times last year, some of them for ventilation infractions, Stricklin said. Massey was cited for 515 safety violations at the mine in 2009 and 124 so far this year.

An investigation has been ordered, but Stricklin said it will not begin in earnest until the rescue and recovery is completed. President Obama ordered federal mine safety officials to report next week on the possible cause of the explosion and on recommendations for improving safety enforcement. The cause of the explosion has not been determined, but methane gas is considered a likely cause.