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Ceremonies mark 1st anniversary of W.Va. mine blast that killed 29
AP
Photo
In this March 8, 2011 photo, Gary Quarles holds a helmet made in memory of his son Gary Wayne Quarles at his home in Naoma, W.Va. Gary Wayne Quarles and 28 other men died deep inside Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine on April 5, 2010 near Montcoal. It was the deadliest U.S. coal mining accident since 1970, and remains the target of civil and criminal investigations.
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va.
Church bells pealed across West Virginia for 29 fallen coal miners as countless tears fell Tuesday and dozens of coal mines stood silent at 3 p.m., roughly the moment when a powerful blast tore through the Upper Big Branch Mine one year ago.
Massey Energy Co., owner of the vast underground mine where the men died in the worst coalfield disaster since 1970, halted production at mines in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky. The families and friends of the victims, other miners and politicians gathered for a series of ceremonies planned through the day and well into the night.
Two miners survived the blast, which remains the target of investigations by regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The day began with acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin solemnly laying a wreath of yellow roses adorned with a black ribbon at a memorial to the state’s coal miners on the Capitol grounds. The ribbon read: “From a grateful people.”
“We’re here today to observe the sacrifice of 29 men,” Tomblin told about 70 people who had gathered for the wreath-laying. ”Keep the miners’ families in our prayers as we go through the rest of the day.”
Alongside the wreath in a plastic sleeve was a child’s hand-drawn card depicting a cross, shovel and pick, and the words “God bless our fallen miners.” Attached was a gift, a plastic cube containing a tiny yellow toy backhoe.
The small service was the first in a series of public and private events marking the first anniversary of the explosion. Others began later in the day at a Beckley church while an evening service was planned at an elementary school about eight miles from the site of the tragedy.
Students at West Virginia University launched a Faces of the Mine website that offered profiles of the miners and planned live streaming video of the evening service at Whitesville Elementary School near the mine in Montcoal in the state’s southern coalfields.