The Monongah Mine Disaster
The Fairmont Coal Company operated mines throughout West Virginia, including those of the former Monongah Mine Company, from which it purchased six mines in 1901. The Fairmont Mines Number 6 and Number 8 were operating on Friday, December 6 1907, with a shift of 367 men working in the two mines. According to long custom, some of the men were accompanied by family members who entered the mines to help, a practice which was unsanctioned by the company. The mines were not known for being particularly plagued with methane pockets, but as in all coal mines methane gas was present, as well as coal dust in the atmosphere.
Just before ten-thirty that gray December morning the residents of Monongah felt and heard a blast from the direction of mines Number 6 and 8. The destruction from the blast was visible on the surface above the mines. Nearly all of the workers in the two mines were killed, from the force of the explosion, which was either from coal dust or methane gas or both, or the toxic gases which ensued. What ignited the explosion remains unknown, but it was fed with blasting powder in the mine. The most likely cause was an electrical spark, or the inadvertent ignition from a carbide lamp worn by the miners in order to see. The mine’s ventilation systems were destroyed by the blasts.
In the absence of ventilation to provide fresh air in the mine there was an immediate buildup of toxic gases, which included methane, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Rescuers and volunteers attempted to enter the mine within a half hour of the explosions, but the absence of breathing equipment prevented them from entering areas where the toxic gases had built up. Simple breathing masks would not have helped, since the toxic gases displaced oxygen. Only five men of the shift which had been in the mines at the time of the blast were rescued from the mine alive, placing the official death toll at 362.
The first decade of the twentieth century had seen several mine disasters and accidents, but none on the scale of the death toll suffered at Monongah. Public demand for safer working conditions and improved working conditions grew steadily, and following the disaster at the Fairmont Mines Congress began a series of hearings on the issue. It took another year and a half before Congressional action led to the Bureau of Mines being established. As part of the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Mines was initially tasked with inspection of mines for unsafe areas and practices, and research into how to prevent both.
Some coal mining companies resented the intrusion of the federal government on their turf, so to speak, and lobbied for the states to retain inspection authority in mines within their jurisdiction. Others, recognizing the potential for enormous losses in manpower, materials, equipment, and profits were more openly co-operative with the federal inspectors. The Monongah disaster led to the development of federal training for miners and rescue services, through field offices which were established by the Bureau of Mines during the second decade of the twentieth century. But mine disasters continued to occur.