Miners lived seconds after explosion
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from September 1989.
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"The inhalation of super-heated gases and inhalation of carbon monoxide in high concentrations is rapidly fatal," Dr. George Nichols said at a news conference.
The fiery explosion that killed the miners last week Wednesday was the the nation's worst coal mine disaster since 19 Dec. 1984, when 27 miners died in a Utah mine.
Nichols said nine of the miners died of smoke inhalation and another, who survived briefly, died from carbon monoxide inhalation. The explosion occurred about 1,000 feet (300 meters) underground in the Pyro Mining Co.'s William Station Mine at Wheatcroft, a rural area 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Madisonville in this southeastern state. A federal investigating team headed to the mine Thursday. "We want to find out what happened so we can take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Frank O'Gorman, a public information specialist with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
