Maine Owl

Maine Owl 2009 Calendar series

This is the beginning of a series of posts on items listed in the Maine Owl 2009 Calendar. Some of these will be more ambitious than others. Often I will point to Wikipedia articles and give only brief personal reflections. Other times I will include much more about why the event listed for the date is meaningful to me. I will try to post on at least 3/4 of the events listed.

Labor struggles and worker safety are represented for quite a few of the dates on the Calendar. On this date in 2006, a tragic underground coal mine explosion in Sago, West Virginia caused the deaths of 12 men by asphyxiation during their long entrapment with toxic gases (one survived the ordeal). A thirteenth man died in the initial explosion.

These miners might have been spared by proper safety equipment and procedures. A New York Times editorial on January 5, 2006 explained,

The mine, with more than 270 safety citations in the last two years, is the latest example of how workers' risks are balanced against company profits in an industry with pervasive political clout and patronage inroads in government regulatory agencies. Many of the Sago citations were serious enough to potentially set off accidental explosions and shaft collapses, and more than a dozen involved violations that mine operators knew about but failed to correct, according to government records.

This is an example of Republican Katrina-esque governance at it's worst. Lives are sacrificed because corporate bosses can make more money if no one effectively regulates what they do.

There is a blog by/about the sole survivor, Randy McCloy, updated only into April 2006. But this post with a news item containing Mr. McCloy's story told in his own words really struck me.

After the blast, the miners returned to their shuttle car in hopes of escaping along the track, but had to abandon their efforts because of bad air. They then retreated, hung a curtain to keep out the poisonous gases, and tried to signal their location by beating on the mine bolts and plates.

"We found a sledgehammer, and for a long time, we took turns pounding away," McCloy wrote. "We had to take off the rescuers in order to hammer as hard as we could. This effort caused us to breathe much harder. We never heard a responsive blast or shot from the surface."

Martin "Junior" Toler, 51, and Tom Anderson, 39, made another, last-ditch attempt to find a way out but were quickly turned back by heavy smoke and fumes, McCloy said.

"We were worried and afraid, but we began to accept our fate," he wrote. "Junior Toler led us all in the Sinners Prayer."

McCloy said the air behind the curtain grew worse, and he lay as low as possible and tried to take shallow breaths, but became lightheaded.

"Some drifted off into what appeared to be a deep sleep, and one person sitting near me collapsed and fell off his bucket, not moving. It was clear that there was nothing I could do to help him," McCloy wrote. "The last person I remember speaking to was Jackie Weaver, who reassured me that if it was our time to go, then God's will would be fulfilled."

Our country owes a lot to miners. I had many relatives who worked iron mines in northern Minnesota. It's rough, dangerous work. We owe it to all mine workers to insist on the highest safety standards. We still have a long way to go.