Executive: Miners did just as they were trained to do

The company official didn't say whether the miners left notes for their families.
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) -- With their escape routes blocked by heavy smoke, most of the 13 miners caught in an explosion did what they were trained to do: They retreated deeper into the mine and hung a curtainlike barrier to keep out toxic gases while they waited for rescuers to find them, officials said Wednesday.
All but one were found dead more than a day and half after the blast.
The miners' families learned of the 12 deaths during a torturous night in which they were mistakenly told at first that 12 of the men were alive. It took three hours before the families were told the truth, and their joy turned instantly to fury, with one man lunging at coal company officials.
It was the nation's deadliest coal mining accident in more than four years.
The sole survivor, 26-year-old Randal McCloy, lay in critical condition with a collapsed lung and dehydration. He was undergoing dialysis treatment, and doctors were trying to inflate a collapsed lung. He also was suffering from heart and liver problems and had been sedated to prevent him from removing a tube inserted in his throat to ease his breathing. McCloy was the youngest miner in the group.
Ben Hatfield, chief executive of mine owner International Coal Group Inc., said that the company did the best it could under extreme stress and exhaustion, and that officials "sincerely regret" the families were left to believe for so long that their loved ones were alive.
"In the process of being cautious, we allowed the jubilation to go on longer than it should have," a choked-up Hatfield said.
He said the initial mistake resulted from a miscommunication among the rescue crews. Another ICG executive, vice president Gene Kitts, suggested the misunderstanding resulted because the rescuers who reached the victims were wearing full-face oxygen masks and used radios to report their findings to their base.
The last of the 12 bodies were taken out of the mine at midmorning.
One of the dead was discovered several hundred feet from where the others had barricaded themselves in the mazelike mine, officials said. Hatfield said the miner, found near a belt used to move coal to the surface, was apparently killed by the force of the blast.
The other men were apparently deeper into the mine at the time and survived the blast. But the mine company would not say exactly how they died or how long they survived, citing family privacy.
"They felt the percussion and heard the noise," Hatfield said. "We believe they probably encountered heavy smoke and the ventilation system was obstructed. They then did what skilled miners do."
Where they were found
McCloy and the 11 others were found at the deepest point of the mine, about 2 1/2 miles from the entrance, behind a fibrous plastic cloth stretched across an area about 20 feet wide to keep out deadly carbon monoxide gas, Hatfield said. Such curtains, called battices, are used in mines to direct air flow, and miners are trained to use them in an emergency.
Each of the miners in the barricaded area also had a breathing apparatus that purifies the air and had been able to use it, according to mine officials.
The outlook for the men appeared bleak Tuesday morning, when rescuers found deadly levels of carbon monoxide -- a byproduct of combustion -- in the mine, and got no response when they banged on a steel pipe.
Hatfield refused to say whether the miners wrote notes to their families.
ICG's Kitts said the rescuers realized McCloy was alive when they heard his moans. Kitts said McCloy may have been the farthest away from the bad air. Doctors said McCloy's youth may also have helped him survive; most of the other miners were in their 50s.
In intensive care
McCloy was in intensive care at West Virginia University's Ruby Memory Hospital at Morgantown, undergoing dialysis because of damage to his kidneys from dehydration. Dr. Lawrence Roberts said McCloy squeezed his wife's hand Wednesday and was communicating with other movements.
The miners had been trapped 260 feet down since Monday morning in the Sago Mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston. As rescue workers tried to reach the men, families waited at the Sago Baptist Church during a grueling vigil.
The mine has one shaft with two shafts extending off to the left, forming a giant backward "F." One of the dead was found near the second left turn in the mine; the others were found at the far end of the shaft formed by the top of the backward "F."
Federal and state authorities said they would investigate the cause of the blast. But coal mine explosions are typically caused by buildups of naturally occurring methane gas or highly combustible coal dust in the air.
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