More distressing news related to Ground Zero keeps coming out. A probe has been launched into the Deutsche Bank building fire that killed two firefighters on August 18th; community leaders are criticizing the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for hiring a demolition subcontractor with insufficient experience and numerous city and federal violations listed against it. The […]
During one of Mr. Bob Murray’s endless television appearances, he was asked why his underground coal mine in Illinois had received more than 900 safety and health violations last year. In his “I’m just a humble coal miner” kind-of-way, he tried to explain that the public just doesn’t understand that getting written up by a mine inspector is commonplace, […]
Four months ago, Mr. Dale Jones, 51 and Mr. Michael Wilt, 38 were killed in a massive highwall collapse at a surface coal mine near Barton, Maryland. The two miners were buried under 93,000 tons of rock, and it took rescue crews three days to recover the men’s bodies.  This week, MSHA assessed a monetary penalty of $180,000 against the mine […]
If you haven’t seen it yet, go read Edward Cody’s Washington Post article on a recent Chinese mine disaster. It begins with a description from a survivor: XINTAI, China, Aug. 23 — The first sign of trouble was a stream of water that burst from a wall deep in the mine, Wang Kuitao recalled. Within […]
This time, it’s not an Act of God, but instead it just that Big, Bad Mountain. Owner/operator of the Crandall Canyon mine, Mr. Bob Murray said today: “Had I known that this evil mountain, this alive mountain, would do what it did, I would never have sent the miners in here.  I’ll never go near that mountain again.” We couldn’t make […]
These three men were killed while trying to rescue six miners trapped at Crandall Canyon in Utah: Dale Ray Black, 48, of Huntington, Utah (read more about him from the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News) Brandon Kimber, 29, of Price, Utah (read more about him from USA Today and the Washington Post) Gary […]
The Mountain Eagle’s Tom Bethell pulls no punches in today’s editorial with an in-your-face critique of the coal industry and their investment (not!) in safety technology. He writes: “Name five U.S. coal companies that have generously supported research to develop a two-way PED, hardened wireless two-way phone systems, and a tracking system capable of instantly locating […]
Mr. Eleazar Torres-Gomez, 46, was killed at an Oklahoma Cintas laundry plant on March 6, 2007, when he was dragged into an industrial dryer because of an unguarded conveyor. Federal OSHA investigated the fatality and, this week, proposed a $2.78 million penalty for, among other things, 42 willful violations of its lockout/tagout standard. OSHA’s Asst. Secretary […]
By Liz Borkowski Although work has begun on a fifth borehole into the Crandall Canyon mine, officials acknowledged yesterday that the six miners may not be found. This LA Times article describes the anguishing choice between leaving the miners underground â a notion âakin to soldiers leaving comrades on the battlefieldâ â and risking more […]
When MSHA’s Gary Jensen, 53, died last week in a rockburst at the Crandall Canyon mine, it had been 26 years since a federal mine inspector had died in the line of duty. Mr. Jensen joined MSHA in 2001 as an inspector. He had worked for nearly 30 years as a coal miner, and was especially skilled in roof […]