Safety Violations Are Cited in 2 West Virginia Mine Deaths

Safety violations that went uncorrected cost two coal miners their lives in a fire on a mine conveyer belt in January, a state report has found.

The deaths, at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in southern West Virginia, came just two weeks after 12 men were killed in an accident at the Sago Mine, in the northern part of the state.

Investigators have found that at Aracoma, a previous fire at the same location went unreported. They also found that a fire alarm did not work, a critical wall was missing, a water line had no water in it and an automatic fire sprinkler was broken. Survivors described a desperate scramble to put the fire out. They said they emptied three fire extinguishers before they were forced to flee.

”If we didn’t have these problems, absolutely those men would not have died,” said J. Davitt McAteer, who led the Aracoma investigation for Gov. Joe Manchin III’s office. ”The company did not comply with the laws.”

The mine is operated by Aracoma Coal, a subsidiary of the Massey Energy Company, based in Richmond, Va.

Mr. McAteer said the testimony his team gathered ”suggests there were profound problems at this mine” that went uncorrected over a long period.

Mr. McAteer, who was an assistant secretary of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration under President Bill Clinton, said the deaths were directly linked to the ”compromised” ventilation system. He said that a missing wall five feet tall and eight feet wide allowed thick smoke to cloud what should have been a clear escape route. The absence of the wall would have been ”impossible to miss” during inspections, he added.

Mr. McAteer’s investigation is one of five into the accident. In April, the United States attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia announced that the federal mine agency had referred issues to prosecutors for possible criminal proceedings. The authorities have declined to elaborate.

Investigators for the State Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training have already released a separate report. The state has issued seven citations directly related to the accident to Massey Energy. The office also cited 16 employees, mostly managers, for knowingly violating safety rules.

In a statement, a Massey Energy spokesman said, ”It appears that deficiencies at the Alma No. 1 mine were not fully recognized by mine personnel or by state or federal inspectors.”

The statement added that the company would not have further comment until it had studied Mr. McAteer’s report.

Since the accident, the federal mine agency’s district manager for the area and two supervisors in charge of inspecting the mine have announced their retirements.

Chris Hamilton, the executive vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said that Mr. McAteer’s findings were serious but that the conditions found at the mine ”were very isolated to that mine.”

Since the beginning of the year, 45 coal miners have died on the job nationally, more than in any of the past 10 years. Half of those deaths have come in West Virginia.