4 missing W.Va. miners dead; final toll at 29

MONTCOAL, W.Va. – Rescue workers found four bodies deep in a West Virginia coal mine, dashing the fading hopes of finding more survivors of a violent explosion that claimed 29 lives, making it the worst U.S. mining disaster in a generation.

The discovery was announced around 1 a.m. Saturday, ending days of futile searches by rescue crews that repeatedly battled a volatile mix of poisonous gases and thick smoke that turned them back on three previous attempts. The massive blast also left the inside of Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch mine a mess of twisted tracks, boulders and debris.

"We did not receive the miracle that we prayed for," Gov. Joe Manchin told reporters after meeting with relatives to deliver the news. "So this journey has ended and now the healing will start."

The explosion erupted without warning Monday afternoon. Two men survived, but 25 were soon known to have perished. That left four unaccounted for, resulting in an agonizing week for relatives and authorities who hoped against odds they had somehow survived and managed to find refuge chambers stocked with food, water, oxygen. But none of the mine's refuge chambers had been deployed.

"The rescue workers told us they're sure no one suffered," Manchin said.

The death toll makes it the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.

Officials say the mission now is to recover all 22 bodies still inside the mine 30 miles south of Charleston. Seven others were recovered soon after the blast Monday.

Twenty-eight of the dead were Massey employees, and one was a contract worker, a company spokesman said.

Even as rescuers were making their final trip into the mine, the close-knit community was beginning to mourn its dead.

More than 300 people packed the Mullens Pentecostal Holiness Church for the funeral of Benny Willingham, a 61-year-old miner who was five weeks from retiring when he died. More services were planned Saturday.

"He wasn't the biggest man in town," said Rev. Gary Pollard. "But if you could see the size of this man's heart, you'd see a giant."

The conditions were so rough after the blast that rescuers only late Friday realized that they had walked past the bodies of the four missing miners on the first day without seeing, a federal mine safety official said.

"There was so much smoke and the conditions were so dire with dust in the air that they apparently bypassed the bodies that were on the ground," said Kevin Stricklin, coal administrator for the federal Mine Safety & Health Administration.

Once the bodies are recovered, MSHA and West Virginia regulators plan a joint investigation that could take up to a year, Stricklin said.

"No stone will be left unturned and we'll find out the cause of this explosion," Stricklin said. "Quite frankly, the only good thing that can come out of this is to educate everyone, put regulations in place to make sure that this never happens again."

Officials have not said what caused the blast, but they believe high levels of methane gas may have played a role.

In the days since the explosion, details have emerged about an extensive list of safety violations at the mine. Mine owner Massey Energy Co. has been repeatedly cited and fined for problems with the system that vents methane and for allowing combustible dust to build up. The company also said it will conduct its own probe into the blast.

CEO Don Blankenship, who was with the families when they learned the miners were dead, has strongly defended the company's record and disputed accusations from miners that he puts coal profits ahead of safety.

Federal regulators issued evacuation orders for all or parts of the mine more than 60 times since the start of 2009, according to inspection records.

In 2007, the mine met criteria to be declared by the Mine Safety and Health Administration as a pattern violator, which would have allowed for stricter oversight, including the potential shutdown of the mine. But Massey was able to reduce the number of the most serious violations and avoid it.

Pam Napper, whose 25-year-old son Josh died, said he had been sent home early the Friday before the explosion because of concerns about ventilation in the mine. He called her at 3:30 p.m. and she asked why he wasn't at work, where he usually stayed until at least 5:30.

"He said, 'Mom, the ventilation's bad,'" Pam Napper recalled. "And they sent him out of the mines. Everybody. He went back to work Monday."

Before that, apparently over Easter weekend, he wrote a letter to his mother, his fiancee and his 19-month-old daughter, telling them that he would be looking down from heaven if anything happened to him.

"I just knew that Josh in his heart knew that something was going to happen," Pam Napper said.

MSHA has appointed a team of investigators to look into the explosion, and President Barack Obama has asked federal mine safety officials to report next week on what may have caused the blast.

"It's clear that more needs to be done," Barack said of mine safety.

The U.S. House and Senate plan to hold hearings, though they won't set a date until rescue efforts are over. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said lawmakers will scrutinize Massey's practices.

The efforts to try to find the four unaccounted for miners and find out if they had survived gripped this hardscrabble slice of Appalachia used to the hardship of working in the mines.

In a smoky room in nearby Whitesville, four people playing video poker early Saturday retreated from the noisy machines to listen to the governor as he delivered the news on live television.

Patty Ann Manios, a city councilwoman, took off her glasses and started to weep. "Oh God. Oh God," she said.

"It's heart wrenching," Manios said. "They didn't know what hit them. They just didn't."

Donna Ward, whose husband works at a different mine, was still crying minutes after the press conference was over.

"I was hoping for four miracles," she said.

The governor said the investigation should lead to new laws aimed at preventing future tragedies.

"This was such a horrific explosion," he said. "There's no way to protect against it. You have to prevent it," he said. "So many family members said to me, Governor, make sure it doesn't happen again."

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Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein, Vicki Smith and Tom Breen contributed to this report.