Rescuers trying to save 13 trapped by coal-mine blast

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. — A coal mine explosion that may have been sparked by lightning trapped 13 miners 260 feet below ground Monday, and rescuers went in to find them after waiting almost 12 agonizing hours for dangerous gases to clear.

The condition of the miners was not immediately known. Four co-workers tried to reach them but were stopped by a wall of debris, and the blast knocked out the mine's communication equipment, preventing authorities from contacting the miners.

It was not known how much air they had or how big a space they were in. The miners had air-purifying equipment but no oxygen tanks, a co-worker said.

"You just have to hope that the explosions weren't of the magnitude that was horrific from the beginning," Joe Manchin, governor of the nation's No. 2 coal-producing state, told CNN. He added, "There's always that hope and chance that they were able to go to part of the mine that still had safe air."

The first of eight search-and-rescue teams entered the Sago Mine more than 11 hours after the blast trapped the miners. Rescue crews were kept out of the mine for most of the day while dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide — a by-product of combustion — were vented through holes drilled into the ground, authorities said.

Company officials believe the trapped miners were about two miles inside the mine, about 260 feet under the ground. The crew entered the mine on foot for fear of sparking another explosion.

Officials refused to estimate how long it would take to reach the miners. Gene Kitts, a senior vice president at the mine's owner, International Coal Group, described the rescue effort as "a very slow, very careful, methodical process."

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration sent a rescue robot to the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.

Some 200 co-workers and relatives of those trapped gathered at the Sago Baptist Church, across the road from the mine.

Anna McCloy said her husband, Randall, 27, was among those missing. She said he had worked at the mine for three years "but was looking to get out. It was too dangerous."

Coal mine explosions are typically caused by buildups of naturally occurring methane gas, and the danger increases in the winter months, when the barometric pressure can release the odorless, colorless and highly flammable gas.