CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – West Virginia’s long history of coal mining does not come without tragedy, and two of the deadliest mining disasters happened just 10 years apart on the same date.
The date was April 28. On that day in 1914, 183 miners lost their lives in an explosion at a mine in Eccles in Raleigh County. Just 10 years later in 1924, 119 miners were killed in a mine explosion in Benwood in Marshall County.
The two disasters would become, respectively, the second and third deadliest mining disasters in the state between 1884 and the present day, according to the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training. The deadliest mining disaster in the state happened on Dec. 6, 1907, when 361 miners were killed in an explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company’s Monongah No. 6 and No. 8 mines in Monongah in Marion County.
According to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, the Eccles mine disaster happened from a chain reaction event. It started when a miner in the New River Collieries Company’s Eccles No. 5 mine blew a hole through a “barrier of coal,” attempting to make a shorter distance between his work areas. The WV Encyclopedia says this caused a shortcutting in the mine’s ventilation system which allowed methane gas to accumulate.
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After the methane began accumulating, another miner’s open flame ignited the gas, which set off the violent explosion. All 174 men in the No. 5 mine were killed in the blast. The WV Encyclopedia says nine men in the connected Eccles No. 6 mine also died either of their injuries or from the deadly afterdamp gas that followed the explosion. According to the United States Mine Rescue Association, at least forty survivors from the No. 6 mine were rescued.
According to the WV Encyclopedia, it took recovery crews four days before they found any of the deceased. Local volunteers and government mine officials, along with then-West Virginia Governor Henry Hatfield, joined the underground exploration parties, the WV Encyclopedia says.
The mine disaster remains the second-deadliest in state history.
Just 10 years later, West Virginia would experience its third-deadliest mine explosion in Benwood, West Virginia. The explosion happened just after 7 a.m. in the Wheeling Steel Corporation’s Benwood mine. An “Archiving Wheeling” article on the Ohio County Public Library website states the disaster started with a smaller explosion of the ignited methane gas, and then, that explosion ignited coal dust, causing a larger explosion. The blast caused fallen slate and debris to block the part of the main entry to the mine.
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All 119 men in the mine were killed in the explosion. The West Virginia Encyclopedia says two of the mine’s fire bosses reported that the mine was free of gas just before the workers went in for their shift. A short time later, a miner found a roof fall just over 20 feet from the room face. The WV Encyclopedia says investigators believed the roof fall had most likely happened after the fire bosses left the mine, but before the miners entered.
Thinking the fire bosses had examined the roof fall, the miner continued toward his area, according to the WV Encyclopedia. At that point, his open-flamed light ignited the firedamp gas caused by the roof fall, setting off the explosion through the “dry and dusty” mine.
According to the WV Encyclopedia, the search, rescue and recovery effort was “slow, difficult and dangerous” for the crews. After five days of rescue efforts inside the mine and vigils outside, crews determined that no miners had survived the explosion. According to Archiving Wheeling, crews did find two miners still alive, however, the men passed away before they could be brought to the surface.
Between 1884 to the present, a total of 2,662 West Virginia miners and civilians have lost their lives in officially-declared mining disasters. In Raleigh County, where the Eccles disaster took place, a historical marker stands in Beckley at the Raleigh County Courthouse to honor the victims of mine explosions that have happened in Eccles and all of Raleigh County, including the 1914 disaster.
The sign reads:
“Five miles west at Eccles, on April 28, 1914, a gas explosion in No. 5 Mine in the Beckley seam killed 174 miners; another nine died in No. 6 mine above from blackdamp. On March 8, 1926, 19 died in No. 5. In 1891, Royal Mine on New River was first to open in Raleigh County. From 1891 to 1991, county mines produced in excess of 791M tons of coal, while accidents claimed the lives of 2,121 miners.”