PALMER, Tenn. -- Thirteen miners working 3 miles deep in a Dogwood Flats Mountain coal mine were killed in a shattering explosion apparently caused by methane gas. Investigators checked the shaft today looking for clues to the Tuesday tragedy.
The deaths brought the toll to 24 in Appalachian mining disasters in the past week. The explosion was Tennessee's worst mining tragedy in 70 years.
Teams with oxygen respirators dug frantically through the debris in the shaft for six hours to rescue the 13 men, but they apparently had been killed instantly by the blast.
Investigators today entered the mine shaft seeking to find the source of the methane which spawned the disaster. They took air samples and then quickly left, fearing the air was bad.
John Parrish, press secretary to Gov. Lamar Alexander, said the samples would be flown to Pittsburgh for analysis.
'They have gone in and taken air samples and decided not to go all the way in,' Parrish said. 'They suspect the air is bad. Before they go in they want to be sure.'
Parrish said he did not know whether the team found lingering traces of methane gas, the suspected cause of the blast Tuesday at Grundy Mining Co.'s mine No 21.
The wife of a coroner who later examined the victims at a funeral home said all were badly burned. 'He (her husband) said they were almost unrecognizable with the coal that was on them and the burns,' said Leona Hall.
On Tuesday William B. Allison, president of Grundy Mining Co., a subsidiary of Tennessee Consolidated Coal Mining Co., waited until all of the relatives of the victims were gathered in a lunchroom of the squat, single-story brick mine headquarters building before breaking the news.
'There were no survivors,' he said as women and children who lost husbands and fathers in the tragedy screamed and sobbed.
'They're all dead,' wailed a little girl in a rabbit-fur coat.
The blast was so powerful it blew out the headlights of trucks parked 100 feet from the mine entrance, but 30 other miners in another shaft of Grundy Mining Co.'s No. 21 mine, located about 30 miles northwest of Chattanooga, were uninjured.
Woody Duncan, director of the Tennessee Division of Mining said the blast was 'possibly a methane gas explosion.'
Duncan said there was equipment in the mines to detect methane gas buildups but the victims may have dug into an old, adjoining shaft where the gas had collected.
'I just don't know until I go underground,' Duncan said.
'An investigation will be conducted immediately to determine the cause of the explosion, and as this information is obtained we will release joint statements,' Allison said.
The president said all of the company's 14 mines -- with the exception of mine No. 21 -- would be open today. 'If someone doesn't feel like coming to work, we'll understand,' he said.
Mine disasters in West Virginia and Kentucky had already killed 11 men since last Thursday.
In Topmost, Ky., the bodies of eight miners were removed earlier Tuesday from the Adkins Coal Co. mine No. 18. There were strong indications that the explosion that collapsed the shaft Monday may have been caused by dynamite.
Last Thursday, three men were killed and a fourth critically injured in a massive roof collapse at an Elk River Sewell Co. mine in Bergoo, W.Va. Two other miners were rescued unharmed.
The victims of the Palmer mine, all of whom lived in the area, were brothers Larry and Danny Cooley, Jimmy Wayne Rogers, Roy White, Jackie Tate, Harvey Nolan, Charlie Myers, Gaylon Parsons, Darrell Rollins, Lee Grimes, Frankie Wilburn, Jacob Kilgore and Ed French.
Gov. Lamar Alexander, extending his sympathy to the families of the victims, called for a review of mine safety procedures.
'I hope federal mine safety and health inspectors, the company and all other mine operators in Tennessee will review this tragedy to see if there are any lessons to be learned to make sure accidents are prevented and lives are saved in the future.'
A procession of six ambulances left the mine in the darkness early today to transport the bodies 15 miles to Hooper's Funeral Home in Whitwell. Police sealed off the mortuary and allowed only family members inside.
Miner Roger Oliver of Whitwell, who once worked in mine No. 21, said all of the mine equipment is electrically powered and has a safety device designed to shut it off when methane gas reaches a certain level.
Oliver said the equipment used includes a cutting machine, a loading machine and a drill.
'Coal mining is the blackest way to earn a living in the world,' he said. 'Of course you think about this kind of thing happening sometimes and it gets to you. You can't think about it every day, or you wouldn't show up.'
