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CNN Live At Daybreak
Explosion in West Virginia Mine
Aired January 22, 2003 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, we mentioned the West Virginia story in the past 30 minutes, we want to get there right now. Cameron, West Virginia is the town, northern section of West Virginia. Some sort of explosion in a mine there. We're getting word now three injured, three others are dead, while workers tried to dig about 1,000 feet below the surface of the earth, trying to install some sort of air shaft to allow miners to work below the surface.
Tom Hoffman is a contractor. He joins us by telephone.
Sir, I understand you're with the company that was trying to dig that air shaft. Tell us what happened.
THOMAS HOFFMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, CONSOLENERGY: Well, I am actually with the company that owns the mine. But you're correct, the McElroy Mine is a large underground mine in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. And the contractor is sinking an air shaft. This is essentially a big vertical tube that goes down from the surface and ultimately intersects the coal seam and then the coal mine to allow us to move air in and out of the mine, kind of like a big manhole, but only a lot, lot deeper.
In this case, the vertical shaft was about 1,000 feet down. It had not yet intersected the coal mine or the coal seam. And the coal mine itself is still several thousand feet away from that area horizontally. So there's no connection between the mine and this shaft.
So you have a construction accident here some time this morning between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. There was an explosion at the bottom of this hole, where six people were working, and as you correctly reported, there were three people fatally injured and three injured and taken to hospital.
HEMMER: Mr. Hoffman, do you believe anyone else is still trapped below that area?
HOFFMAN: No. There were just six people. They're all -- and we know who they were. And essentially at this point it will be a matter of recovering the people who were killed and then beginning an investigation.
HEMMER: What explains why an explosion would occur at that point, that depth?
HOFFMAN: Well, very difficult to say. Again, this is an open hole from the surface down into the ground. So it's not analogous to the underground mining situation. But the, I mean these people work with torches underground cutting metal. They use explosives to break up the rock, to get it out of the ground in order to sink the shaft. So there could be any number of things that could have happened.
That, of course, is what the investigation would reveal.
HEMMER: All right, Tom, thank you.
Tom Hoffman is a contractor who helps with the operations for that mine in the northern part of West Virginia, the panhandle, as he calls it.
Again, three dead, three injured as a result of that explosion early in the morning hours of Wednesday.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 22, 2003 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, we mentioned the West Virginia story in the past 30 minutes, we want to get there right now. Cameron, West Virginia is the town, northern section of West Virginia. Some sort of explosion in a mine there. We're getting word now three injured, three others are dead, while workers tried to dig about 1,000 feet below the surface of the earth, trying to install some sort of air shaft to allow miners to work below the surface.
Tom Hoffman is a contractor. He joins us by telephone.
Sir, I understand you're with the company that was trying to dig that air shaft. Tell us what happened.
THOMAS HOFFMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, CONSOLENERGY: Well, I am actually with the company that owns the mine. But you're correct, the McElroy Mine is a large underground mine in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. And the contractor is sinking an air shaft. This is essentially a big vertical tube that goes down from the surface and ultimately intersects the coal seam and then the coal mine to allow us to move air in and out of the mine, kind of like a big manhole, but only a lot, lot deeper.
In this case, the vertical shaft was about 1,000 feet down. It had not yet intersected the coal mine or the coal seam. And the coal mine itself is still several thousand feet away from that area horizontally. So there's no connection between the mine and this shaft.
So you have a construction accident here some time this morning between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. There was an explosion at the bottom of this hole, where six people were working, and as you correctly reported, there were three people fatally injured and three injured and taken to hospital.
HEMMER: Mr. Hoffman, do you believe anyone else is still trapped below that area?
HOFFMAN: No. There were just six people. They're all -- and we know who they were. And essentially at this point it will be a matter of recovering the people who were killed and then beginning an investigation.
HEMMER: What explains why an explosion would occur at that point, that depth?
HOFFMAN: Well, very difficult to say. Again, this is an open hole from the surface down into the ground. So it's not analogous to the underground mining situation. But the, I mean these people work with torches underground cutting metal. They use explosives to break up the rock, to get it out of the ground in order to sink the shaft. So there could be any number of things that could have happened.
That, of course, is what the investigation would reveal.
HEMMER: All right, Tom, thank you.
Tom Hoffman is a contractor who helps with the operations for that mine in the northern part of West Virginia, the panhandle, as he calls it.
Again, three dead, three injured as a result of that explosion early in the morning hours of Wednesday.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
