Ben Hatfield
Ben Hatfield
The Sago Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion on January 2, 2006, at the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia, United States, near the Upshur County seat of Buckhannon. The blast and collapse trapped 13 miners for nearly two days; only one survived. It was the worst mining disaster in the United States since the Jim Walter Resources Mine Disaster in Alabama on September 23, 2001, and the worst disaster in West Virginia since the 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster...
hot information kitchen parking people sharing talking
Everyone was talking about it in the parking lots, in the kitchen and everywhere. People that got the information were sharing it because that was the hot rumor.
army conduct fixed hard people safe
We have an army of people working as hard as they can to get the ventilation fixed so it is safe to go in and conduct the investigation.
anyone certainly damage feet good group hours knew looking people regret save trying
You have a group of people who have been on their feet for 30 to 40 hours trying to save lives. They were looking desperately for a good outcome. I don't think anyone knew how much damage was going to be created. I certainly regret that.
forward hope people push quickly shred
We will push forward as quickly as we can as long as there is a shred of hope that we can get our people out safely.
believe determined fewer forward hard industry less men move pace people quicker talented
We determined we could move forward at a quicker pace by rehabilitating fewer entries and doing less construction on the way in. I believe we have the smartest, most talented people in the industry working as hard as they can to get the men out safely.
believe defending focus mine people
Our focus is not on defending records, our focus is on getting people out of there and that's all we want to focus on at this point. We believe the mine was safe.
family good looking people share
They were looking desperately for good information. These are friends, family of the people that are trapped. There was desperation for good information. They wanted to share it.
clinging command people
The families, much like the people working in the command center, are clinging to every hope.
concern foremost people process risk throughout until
The foremost concern throughout this process has been that there are so many things we don't know about what went wrong. We don't want to put any more people at risk until we know answers.
results
We are very discouraged by the results of this test.
area breathing miners safe secure tried
These miners tried desperately to secure an area of safe breathing environment.
clinging families hope progress
Progress has been slow. Families are clinging to every hope of survival.
initial location miners missing monday multiple remaining reports rough since turned
At that location they encountered a rough barricade structure. With 12 remaining miners that had been missing since the Monday explosion. Initial reports indicated multiple survivors, but that turned out to be a miscommunication.
caused wrong
We don't what went wrong and caused this explosion.