"At 8:00am they reported point six passes with no downtime. The shearer was at number 140 shield mining toward the tailgate." Ah yes, now I understand.
@@ihatejamon Q: how many miners does it take to change the teeth on a shearer?? A: three. one to change the teeth and the other 2 to chooch each other's pant antlers at the bottom of a dark hole
I'm a truck driver and at my last job, I was constantly being told to "Hurry Up!" They literally did not care if someone got hurt or killed because of my actions. All they cared about was getting their freight picked up and delivered. I eventually left. GOOD RIDDANCE!!
Something happened at a trucking company that was trying to transport my tractor. The kid loaded on a backhoe loader forwards under the trailer because he was on a time crunch. because of this, while he was unloading it, it went sideways off the trailer because it had no weight on the front tires. He also loaded and unloaded it... Always safety first, and let the customer do the loading. Not worth dying for 20 minutes of time savings.
yup HURRY HURRYHURRY HURRY and if dont... fired... as warm bodies are a dime a dozen, hire/fire/hire/fire/hire/fire... i called them SAUSAGE GRINDERS... chew ppl up/toss them out with 20 ppl for every job one warm body is the same as the next.
The sniffers were removed to keep the shear running along. You can't make money if it's not running. Paid off inspectors to look the other. Enough gas built up behind the gob will explode with a good spark. The sniffers detect the methane hence will automatically shut off the shear with a high reading. The next crew coming in was coming in earlier than normal that day. The explosion shot up the intake also killing the crew heading inby the longwall section. The rails were bent up like pretzels. The recovery was gruesome. I quit mining 3 months later and didn't look back.
Glad you are out of the Big Machine. Everyone deserves to have their life preserved by the company they keep afloat. It should be common sense to protect the people that support your operations.
@@pleep1887 You are forgetting the almighty dollar my friend. In a board and pillar mine here in Australia our manager, a Scottish fellow, wanted a Deputy to "rob" stook "X" in an extraction panel. In an extraction panel all the big blocks (pillars) get trimmed down from 45m x 45m down to about 12m x 12m from memory as the mining process retreats back out of the panel, leaving the roof to fall in at a sort of controlled rate, hopefully not over running the mobile roof supports and crew. All this gets done to an extraction plan, formulated with the geology and stresses involved to prevent this happening. Which pillars you cut, from what direction, angle etc Stook X is an end pillar critical to that plan and the manager wanted the crew to trim or rob it of supporting coal, all for the sake of production quotas and his job or bonus probably. Risking the crews lives, the bastard!
I worked in both UK and Australian coal mines, in NSW Australia, the Caol Mines Regulation Act required an automatic methane detector on the last roof support on the return air side of the face, WHICH, when it detects Methane in the general body of the air, when that level of methane reaches one and one quarter percent to trip power off the face to all electrical equipment. As the face electrician, I used to "bend the rules" occasionally, BUT if the detector failed to work, that was it I'd shut off power, now way would we cut coal without the detector working, just not worth the risk.
any thing you can imagine, some company already has a patent on it and is operating it right now, my dad worked in all types of industry and I've seen some crazy machinery, that you would never think could actually work, men have imagined and built alot of incredible machines.
Long wall mining has been around since the 70’s. I actually design these long wall shearers. Been doing it for almost 12 years now. This animation is an oversimplification. I’ve been underground in a long wall mine. It’s quite the experience. It’s impressive what these machines can do. In fact we have some in China that cut almost 30ft high coal seams. (8m)
@@joeskis Mining Engineering student here. Coal broken up by the shearer falls down and out onto a moving chain (the bending black lines in the animation). The chain drags it out to a feeder, which channels the coal onto a conveyor belt that carries it out of the mine for processing.
@@stevevb988 I work in a steel forge making these bars for the conveyors and the teethed sections that the cutters sit on. JOY Mining if you`ve heard of them.
And this is why you don’t take short cuts and let a manager or supervisor tell you to do shit the wrong way.... I hate to say it but some of these people knew the sprayers was not working..... but yet they went to work everyday and didn’t care to fix it or try to get it fixed. I have been on several job sites where the supervisor tells you to do unsafe crap and wants you to work in an unsafe environment. I will speak up and tell em what I think even if we have to fight about it or loose my job over it at least I tried to get stuff fixed before it cost someone there life..... the real question here is how long was the sprayers not working before this happened.....if 14 sprayers was not working properly then this was an on going safety issue that no one cared enough about that it cost 30 people their lives..... the jobs I have worked on , we had a safety meeting every morning or at every shift change. And it would allow problems to be addressed, evaluated and fixed. It’s hard for me to believe these folks let the sprayer system slide like this without being addressed and fixed. Especially In a coal mine where methane gas could be preset at any time.
Yup...I wrote up lots of safety deficiencies...nothing ever got fixed because it was too expensive or the crushing plant would need to be shut down to correct it. Couldn't even get enough maintenance men because half the county is on meth, pills, or dope.
There are bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D programs in Occupational Safety and Health, toxicology, industrial hygiene, and safety engineering. You should explore these. There are people who specialize in accident investigation to determine root causes - and, hopefully, prevent their recurrence.
"I ate Taco Bell, after which a methane ignition occurred and my toilet was at capacity with no downtime" ua-cam.com/video/HLokEkyDtpU/v-deo.html (here's the meme)
The old way, you just push all your downtime to the start or the end of shift and call it "scheduled maintence". Luckily in my time mining there has been a strong shift away from this kind of reporting.
No one in an accident investigation should feel the need to plead the fifth. Finding the cause and preventing further loss of life are the priority, not holding one person to account.
Depends on the accident investigation. Junior guys who tend to be scapegoats when the real guilt lies higher should probably always plead the Fifth unless they have a competent lawyer representing them who recommends otherwise.
I think the mine owners and the senior folks responsible for ensuring the place is safe and in working condition ought to be at risk of being held to account. These guys treat workers like chattel - as long as they coal keeps coming out of the ground, they can sit in their plush, if tacky, offices a hundred miles away and count their money, safety issues and working conditions be damned. That mentality usually ends up being the actual cause, anyway. Super convenient to just stop at the engineering analysis and say "oh! everyone... make sure you're keeping the sprayers working to keep things cool," without ever stopping to ask why non-functional sprayers were ever considered acceptable by leadership to begin with.
Per Wikipedia: The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5, 2010 roughly 1,000 feet underground in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine located in Montcoal. Twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed. The coal dust explosion occurred at 3:27 pm.
@@fanndisgoldbraid3183 Yeah, but unfortunately Joseph has already moved on and will never see this, and is probably asking Q's elsewhere that he could have found the answer to without putting a finger to keyboard, or even got the answer he was looking for within seconds..........
It takes a brave person to go in a hole and do this. I went down a gold mine in South Dakota to check out a job, but could not get out of there fast enough.
I'd bet money it was so they could get the last bit out. And I'd bet they were hitting a lot of rock so there wasn't any coal left after the pass. Everything about their operation says fast, no downtime, no coal left behind.
No it was a longwall mine but but due to your 40 foot cuts in the conventional cm process you cut crosscuts shorter to have more places to move si you can keep moving without stopping.
Because at the time nothing like this had ever happened. If it's not ESSENTIAL then we keep working. At the time this was a Massey Mine. They take their time fixing things and when the miner is down they lose MILLIONS of dollars. So they kept running it, the Methane built up behind the miner and then the mine exploded and the belt line caught fire, then it collapsed.
Don the Con saved a penny at the risk of miner's lives,I believe the lack of wanting to use the correct amount of rock dust properly required ,safety rules that were hard to follow as I believe the Con required hourly production reports & down time making the miners feel in a state of constant rushing/hurrying for fear of their jobs & everyone knows the least productive can & will be laid off/fired for no reason & I'm pretty sure this was non-union,so to answer your question I would say out of Don the Con Blankenshit's greed a lack of rockdust cost 29 lives & families lives to be ruined & changed forever due to no fault of the miners! Con more than likely fought the families as much as possible to keep from paying them benefits for their loss of a loved 1 & to make it worse fought it in court to blame it on a "coal miner's negligence" which is not true because the 1st thing they think of when riding the belt/car down that deep dark hole is putting in their shift to provide for their family & than return home safely to that home & family waiting for him/her!
@@kaymadden9669 So this is the famous Blankenshit's Disaster. Didn't know, they seem to try to keep his name out of it in the report and didn't even mention any fatalities. I'm sure he's a powerful asshole in the area and has to be protected ya know. So sad that they put production over lives, but that is what they call MBO. Management By Objective, is a corporate management tool. It was used by McNamara in Vietnam. In that version it was body count. Here it was production by tons per day or per shift no doubt. MBO creates a focus on production without looking at the big picture and can be the road to hell imho.
I still remember the day many ambulances flew past the house, thankfully my father left Massey and went to ICG a short time before this happened. Rip to all 29.
How sad...any mining death is a tragedy. I don't want to get involved in all the "who's fault is it?" back and forth. I just want to express my thanks and respect to those men who gave their lives. I come from a mining town (Butte, MT) and we've had our share of the same type of tragedy. It's a shame....Long live our Miners!!!
@@damnits2200 There were a few other things that happened that year too. I was going through the deep dark parts of youtube, and there were more disasters in 2010 as well.
There was so many problems here, lack of experience, improper rockdust or lack thereof, low ventilation, and the people that claimed the 5th are the ones that would be liable for this issue. Yes the men working there are as much to blame as the ones that let it get this way
It would be hard to use the 5th, mines run on paperwork, ie as an electrician, I had to perform Planned Maintenance, , that was daily inspections of electrical equipment in my panel, weekly examinations, Monthly, three monthly and annual. Each had it's limitations, daily was visual inspections all the way up to Annual, which meant a full external and internal inspection of my equipment, then dated and signed to be filed away. Each shift, my daily end of shift reports had to be initialed by my engineer, Under Manager and Manager, so any defects noted by everyone who needed to know and filed away.
Each mine operator has to submit a ventilation plan to MSHA before they can produce coal at the mine. Throughout the life of the mine, changes must be made to that plan as the mine develops. A short time before this explosion, the operator had submitted changes to the ventilation plan that would have addressed the problem of the methane seeping out from behind the shields. MSHA rejected this plan thinking that they knew better. There are some folks at MSHA who are also liable for these miner’s death. You’ll never hear about that.
Probably the biggest takeaway here is this: compartmentalizing sections of this huge mine should've been deployed to constain the spread of this rapidly moving methan fire. Would've cut down on death and destruction immensely. Very nicely done animation.
Not sure if you watched the video but the methane explosion happened due to dry conditions at the face and after the initial methane explosion it was coal dust blowing up.
@@navyseal7036 yessir! I always did put my dust on a lil'thick! I can understand the sprayers (tips) getting clogged up here and there.. but there is just no excuse for the ventilation being bad. But.. it's to late.. once something like this happens buddy!(🤝)
I would think the sprayers would be something that would be kept on.Hands down I have the most respect for the men that keep the lights on its something I cant do.
I'm an underground coal miner. It's rough work. But it's a lot like being in the army. The men you work with become your brothers. You love them. they are your family. We protect one another and when something like this happens We all die together. It's a bit more comforting.
Sennghenyd 1901 ,81 of 82 working in collery killed in gas explosion, 1913 same pit 439 killed ,gas explosion again. Abercarn colliery 1878 ,268 men and boys killed in firedamp blast. Risca colliery 1880 ,120 men killed in gas explosion. Six bells colliery 1960, 47 men killed in gas explosion. Abervan 1966 coal spoil tip slips due to it situated over a spring that was known about. it slid down the mountain and as soon as it stopped I am informed set like concrete. It buried the local junior school killing 116 children and 28 adults . This was all within about a 10 miles radius we do not have statues around us we have memorials in the Welsh valleys.
It's geology it's high quality anthracite and cokeing coal in deep mines prone to firedamp methane etc, it was needed in the steel industry along with the ore and copious supplies of water all found in the area .
Peg James,I don't know how old you are,but great of you to highlight how much suffering there was in the Mining Industry,just to make Coal-owners Richer and Fatter.I watched the BBC News coverage, on old Black and White Television,in 1966,the day that the Aberfan disaster had happened,after my just finishing a hard shift down a wet,rough,dangerous hell-hole,Called Choppington B Pit..[the "High Pit"],I was 22 years old,and coal cutting and hand-filling on a coalface where the roof used to lower with extreme pressure,as every minute passed..roof falls were frequent..men killed and injured frequently,yet even in the 1960's, the National Coal Board took no action to prevent these dangers to the workforce....it was sometimes difficult to even claim any compensation..to my mind ,any loss of life is a disaster,even one person,...but the NCB,in it's wisdom,defined a Disaster,as the loss of "FIVE OR MORE LIVES"...and I say..try telling ONE Widow and her Children,that their loved one isn't coming home from the pit,but it isn't a Disaster.......
@@highpitwilma what got me was the NCB refusing to accept full responsibility financially, and 150,000 pounds was used from the disaster fund to remove what remained of the spoil heap,and it was not until the 1990s did the high court rule it be repaid By the way I remember dependant on what day it was meant the ebbw was black from the collery , red from the steel works or a brown sludge colour,and every spare bit of ground had a waste tip on it but lots of places for us 10 year olds to have a big adventure playground. I was 10 when aberfan occured.
You should live where these longwall mines pass under people's property. Lakes disappear, creeks, farms are destroyed by swamps created and roads sink. The only thing law requires are the buildings repaired. Unlike room and pillar longwall take all the coal and subsidence assured. Natural gas is not this destructive.
Interstate 70 at PA-WV border. Don't talk, you are uninformed. I am a certified miner that left the industry. observer-reporter.com/news/localnews/interstate-restrictions-planned-today-near-west-alexander/article_8c5acc70-39f3-11e9-ad85-db5113b2c1af.html
As am I dipshit actually 5 year mine foreman. Room and pillar also removes all the coal. Thats what screwed murray in utah. I 70 at wv and pa is not from mining.
@@JasonTate86 ...Sorry mate,but you are also wrong,or,you haven't explained how Bord and Pillar,[ or Room and pillar..same thing!],extract all the coal!! ..the purpose of Bord and Pillar is exactly as it says!...you take out the roadways and Intersections..["Stentons" here in Northumberland UK],and you LEAVE in the Pillars!...this is called "Partial Extraction"..as opposed to Longwall mining which is "Total Extraction"..and the pillars which are left in,support the strata and Property or land on the surface. We were mining Bord and Pillar by hand,in the UK,long before your Country was even inhabited by the Goldrush generation! I know nothing of what happened in Utah,but Subsidence is Subsidence all the world over,and although Rules and Regulations were introduced by the British Government in 1947,and 1954,in the Coalmining Industry,Officials underground still gave the miners orders to mine past Boundaries set by the Mine Surveyors...and actually mined under property...a lot of which was never recorded..I know personally,because I had to follow orders,as did all the other Miners at the pit where I worked....or I should have said... ONE of the pits where I worked![over a period of thirty years,from 1959 - on!... with 7 years as a Mine Deputy/Overman].. The only way you could turn Partial extraction [Bord and Pillar] into TOTAL extraction,would be to set up small Retreater faces,usually 60 yards in length.Our Pillars were 60 yards by 60 yards square..as depicted in this Animation. The only thing that puzzles me here is the plan is ALL Bord and Pillar...and I am wondering where the Longwall Face is among all this!! methinks somebody cocked up somewhere!
I currently work with a miner who survived this explosion, he was at the portal during the time of the explosion which is the only reason he survived. He was supposed to be on the face that day and all of his friends died.
I know absolutely nothing about mining. If they were mining the face of the coal seam in long straight cuts, what was the purpose of all the small intersecting tunnels off to the sides of the coal seam?
I was working at Cliffs in Beckley, when this happened and it really hit home when you do this job everyday day in day out it's always in the back of your mind that something is going to go very wrong not if but when and as a mine electrician/mechanic theres been many times we were told to take short cuts to make it run, put a sock over the gas sniffers, take short cuts on cable spliced, etc.but as a second gen.miner you just go to work and think about that paycheck and why your there and how hard it is to get a job making the kind of money we do without a college education.I just thank God for keeping me and my (brothers) co-workers safe for over the past 15yrs and ongoing. Prayers to all the ones effected by this tragic accident.
Don't you guys have a union, I'm an electrician, before I got in the union, my bosses made us work on stuff hot all the time, getting shocked was a weekly event, sometimes many times a day, I'm lucky I lived through the first 15 years of being an electrician, then I got in the union, and never had to work on anything hot again, the owners never asked us to work hot because they knew it was wrong, and the union would come after them if they tried, I would think if you see unsafe working conditions, your union would back you up for reporting them?
This is a great video thank you for sharing and making available. I always watch industrial investigations and this one i have not seen before. Thank you. Very interesting information here. I hope everyone is safe that was involved.
That's exactly why I'm here. No relation to mining in any way but heard Don the Con Blankenship was actually in the hunt Friday.. What in God's green earth are W.Virginians thinking?? You'd expect a man who killed 29 people in an industry that connects the entire state would be so reviled he wouldn't even get out of single digit polling numbers!
The shock front overpressures in this explosion was like a damned NUKE went off in there. 20 psi is enough to destroy reinforced concrete buildings 5 psi is enough to destroy typical residential homes and wood frame construction.
Only at certain percentages of methane, 5-15%. Most countries require power be removed at 1 1/4 percent, and all men withdrawn to safety at around 2% methane.
the "map" of the explosion at the end is top-down view? how big are the individual squares, like how long is the side of the square? the way i understood it, each of them is one shield wall so like 100-200 meters
When mine safety laws are violated upper management and mine ownership go to jail. The fact that they pleaded the fifth suggests they know they were breaking the law but they didn't care.
@@jamesricker3997 .I am in the UK,where we have our own MINES AND QUARRIES ACT,so I am wondering what this "5th" is,that everyone mentions in their comments,could you please explain? Thanks and Cheers!
@@highpitwilma The 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In a nutshell, it is The right to protection from self incrimination", (One can "Invoke the 5th Amendment rather than answer any questions by Law Enforcement in the USA if they are being deposed, While under simple questioning, Not under court order, "You have the right to remain Silent") It may seem wrong in this instance, but it was created to protect the "innocent" from forced confession, and perhaps only to stop endless interrogation. It basically puts the onus of proof on the investigating agency.
What happened to the stonedust, do they not erect stonedust barriers and blow stoneduct onto the sidewalls? This would not have prevented the methane explosion but would have prevented the coaldust explosion.
Oh I have A comment . I was laid off from the only job I have ever had that I actually enjoyed . The coal mines in southwest Virginia are the safest place in the world . It's A dangerous job do not get me wrong . I only worked for A few years underground but the time I was underground I always felt safe . The only reason that I felt safe was the people . The best people I have ever met in my life . Hardest working , most intelligent , down to earth people you would ever meet . The mines that have been shut down in this area have devastated the economy . They just shut down A whole hospital In Lee county . The effects are on our jobs . Now there are a few large mines still open for NOW . But all of that coal goes to China , to support the steel industry that left the rust belt behind . I worked my butt off to get the best job of my life and then politicians threw it away for Fracking . I mean come on have you even looked into what kind of chemicals they are pumping into our ground water . These people do not care . They make their millions , billions and move to another country leaving us with out any jobs . Were drinking hydrochloric acid ...THEY....... Then say " Well it's good for the environment " ......are you freaking kidding me . Please people reading this spend a few moments of your time and look into fracking They say coal is bad ........it's not the environment they care about it's their buddies bank accounts that change the policies in this country . Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely .....................GodSpeed ...................... ....................The Cracken ................................................................
I'm proud to say that I work at a Coal Mine in Southern West Virginia. Right on the Boone/Logan county line. I'm DAMN proud to be a coal miner. I graduated high school and I'm going to college as well to be an Electrician underground. i LOVE what I do. These men are my brothers. Id lay down my life for anyone of them as they would me if I needed!
You don't understand that Mining coal in Southern West Virginia is the ONLY thing we have here! There is no industry. You either mine coal or work at McDonald's. I have a family of 4 including myself and I REFUSE to flip burgers. Mining is all I know, all I wanna do and all I'm GOING to do for the rest of my life. Sure, It might kill me. But at least while I'm working I KNOW my family is taken good care of. The mines are picking back up now that Obama is gone. Everything should go back to the way it was.
The mine owner responsible for this disaster had a lengthy trial, was only charged with a misdemeanor and served one year in prison. He's done nothing but whine about the one year and misdemeanor charge. His campaign for governor was pretty much a "give me pitty" tour.
Actually, Don Blankenship ran for the Senate and lost. His history demonstrates his appropriateness as a staunch Trumpist - a complete disregard for workers in exchange for maximizing profits. As a soulless crook who actually once said conserving gasoline in the 70's was tantamount to the introduction of "communism", he would have made a perfect addition to the current administration. I'm actually surprised he hasn't been nominated for something.
Seems odd to click "like" for this. And I admit 70 % of the engineering jargon was over my head. But, an engaged intellect allows a certain apathy none the less. A catastrophic disaster occurred, multiple lives were lost. We must remember to mourn and honor the dead.
Having watched a few IED vids, it seems that blast overpressure of 5 psi is sufficient to cook one's goose. So practically everybody in this mine got theirs cooked? (Sorry I didn't read/watch all.)
+6 PSI is the line around a nuclear blast where death is assured and structures are demolished. You've seen the video or gif. Large parts of this mine saw 6 PSI, 12 PSI, 20 PSI, and up to 105 PSI.
Remember the old story about 'the want of a shoe'? The real problem isn't the gas...it's the coal dust!! A gas explosion is only a problem until the fire consumes the gas; but if it ignites the trillions of tiny (smaller than the eye can see) dust particles, the entire mine can go up. It did, in this case. If only the shearer's water jets were not defective!! They failed to keep the coal dust down during cutting. I was shaking my head at this before I even know what the outcome was.
To George Jetson, I understand that you have that 5000-23 paperwork, all that is is an annual refresher. YOUR MINING CERTIFICATION COMES FROM WHATEVER STATE YOU WORK IN!!!!!! For example, I have my West Virginia black hat card, my Ohio black hat card and my Pennsylvania black hat card. As well as having my West Virginia assistant mine foreman papers. Every certification I have has been issued THROUGH THE STATE that I’ve worked in.
They obviously didn't use stonedust to counter coaldust, i used stonedust back in the 80's when i worked in the coalmines of South Africa, stonedust was applied when the workface was more than 10 meters ahead, the special properties of the stonedust prevents coaldust to ignite when kicked of the walls by a methane explosion.
I never thought about that statement" we hit a natural gas well" by Blankenship until after this video. In reality, a large methane concentration will burn slow around the edges, but coal dust when it kicks up will detonate with its own flame front traveling faster than the methane flame front. Any one thing could have stopped that... not grinding down to rock to get the last ounce of coal out would have cut down on sparks. Running the sprayers would have cut down on ignition when there were sparks... Limestone would have made the huge amount of coal dust less explosive... Seals would have slowed propagation until the flame front died out or was too slow to kick up the dust. It was a chain that would have been stopped if any link were broken.
@@Normandy-e8i They were evacuating the mine but by the time the one section found out about the fire they had already been trapped by it and there was so much smoke in the mine they couldn't see to escape. So they slowly died.
I feel like I just walked through a doorway with a sign on it that said "mine disaster" and a room full of confused people watching UA-cam is what I found.. sup guys?
They draw the flame fronts all slow and stuff but they are talking supersonic shock wave velocities and pressures like you'd get near a nuclear explosion. Those famous nuke test videos where you see houses blown to bits were at 5 to 10 PSI in many cases. A 20 PSI shock front will ratfuck pretty much everything.
Why working units wasn't stop after methane detction? I would vent the mine... BTW - that is WHY i'm with nuclear energy - nothing in uranium mine or thorium beach can caugh fire and explode....
No it wasn't. If rock dusted properly when the explosion happened it wouldn't have traveled like it did. Rock dust would have kept the coal dust from exploding.
***** even off it had knocked it off rock dust is made to stick to coal dust to weigh it down so there fore they didn't rock dust and the water sprayers like it said were absent the water sprayers are supposed to keep the dust down as well
+Robbie Williams Yep. Plus I believe the crushed rock dust mixed with the crushed coal dust changes the ignition point of the mixed-combined dusts, so that it has less chance of exploding. Miners, let us know. I'd also add, that this is also an indication that the gob wasn't being ventilated fully.
If only they'd used a field of half-seized sprats and brass fitted nickle slits for the bracketed caps and splay flexed brace columns to dampen the hatches to 0.5 meters.
I have always believed that if there were the amount of air in the face that the law requires, it would have been impossible for this explosion to happen.
Men's lives were lost,mate,and Women and their Kids left without a Husband and Dad,respectively...now we miners all have a gud sense of humour here in the North-east of England UK[Geordie land!]..but this is no time for joking...so stick with your X-Box.
"At 8:00am they reported point six passes with no downtime. The shearer was at number 140 shield mining toward the tailgate."
Ah yes, now I understand.
As soon as I heard the B lock was missing I knew what was up
🤣🤣🤣
"As the shearer cut into the tailgate entry and was seen by the shearer operators who shut off the shearer---" you know it.
I don’t get it pls explain
@@gumbyshrimp2606 he's just making fun of them using all the technical language on a video that a bunch of laymen will watch
29 out of 31 miners were killed that day. May their souls Rest In Peace.
And may Don Blankenship go to hell. He placed profit above all.
@@garywheeler7039 Amen to that ... greedy SOB!
When before explosion they saw fire flames, they had ran away. Unable to understand why 29 killed as explosion should have taken sometime to explode
@@ayushtiwari2428 Did you not hear him saying the flames were traveling at 1000 feet per second in some areas?? Nothings outrunning that.
@@moistnuuget6997 I hear they saw flames at back and they left the place then afterwards the flames got explosive mixture and exploded
Ok one more vid before bed
youtube recommendations:
@Rafael Trujillo same scenario for me right now :D
Same
Me
nailed it @Cube Fish
This is why I love watching at 2x speed - this way I can watch moar :D
The amount of engineering that goes into mining is absolutely mind blowing.
It's absolutely "mine blowing" Hehe!
@@mythril4 ah ah ah aha aha ahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahha AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH AAAAAAAAAA
Everyone: Why is this in my feed?
Me, an actual MSHA certified miner: I understand why this is in my feed.
I dont even know why I'm here.
Hell yeah 💪 Miners make the world go round, I miss working the mines and crushing rock such a fun job
weird flex but ok
@@slabbadanks5829 you drink craft beer and sniff booty hair lololol
@@ihatejamon Q: how many miners does it take to change the teeth on a shearer??
A: three. one to change the teeth and the other 2 to chooch each other's pant antlers at the bottom of a dark hole
I'm a truck driver and at my last job, I was constantly being told to "Hurry Up!" They literally did not care if someone got hurt or killed because of my actions. All they cared about was getting their freight picked up and delivered.
I eventually left.
GOOD RIDDANCE!!
Something happened at a trucking company that was trying to transport my tractor. The kid loaded on a backhoe loader forwards under the trailer because he was on a time crunch. because of this, while he was unloading it, it went sideways off the trailer because it had no weight on the front tires. He also loaded and unloaded it... Always safety first, and let the customer do the loading. Not worth dying for 20 minutes of time savings.
These companies don’t care about people. $$$$$$ is all that matters
yup HURRY HURRYHURRY HURRY and if dont... fired... as warm bodies are a dime a dozen, hire/fire/hire/fire/hire/fire... i called them SAUSAGE GRINDERS... chew ppl up/toss them out with 20 ppl for every job one warm body is the same as the next.
The sniffers were removed to keep the shear running along. You can't make money if it's not running. Paid off inspectors to look the other. Enough gas built up behind the gob will explode with a good spark. The sniffers detect the methane hence will automatically shut off the shear with a high reading. The next crew coming in was coming in earlier than normal that day. The explosion shot up the intake also killing the crew heading inby the longwall section. The rails were bent up like pretzels. The recovery was gruesome. I quit mining 3 months later
and didn't look back.
Glad you are out of the Big Machine. Everyone deserves to have their life preserved by the company they keep afloat. It should be common sense to protect the people that support your operations.
I worked at the Marfork plant , Massey had labor standards of 1910 , I was glad to leave there
you would think that after so many mining accidents throughout history that these companies would take it more seriously.
@@pleep1887 You are forgetting the almighty dollar my friend.
In a board and pillar mine here in Australia our manager,
a Scottish fellow, wanted a Deputy to "rob" stook "X" in an
extraction panel.
In an extraction panel all the big blocks (pillars) get trimmed down from
45m x 45m down to about 12m x 12m from memory as the mining
process retreats back out of the panel, leaving the roof to fall in at a
sort of controlled rate, hopefully not over running the mobile roof supports and crew.
All this gets done to an extraction plan, formulated with the geology and stresses
involved to prevent this happening.
Which pillars you cut, from what direction, angle etc
Stook X is an end pillar critical to that plan and the manager wanted the crew
to trim or rob it of supporting coal, all for the sake of production quotas
and his job or bonus probably.
Risking the crews lives, the bastard!
I worked in both UK and Australian coal mines, in NSW Australia, the Caol Mines Regulation Act required an automatic methane detector on the last roof support on the return air side of the face, WHICH, when it detects Methane in the general body of the air, when that level of methane reaches one and one quarter percent to trip power off the face to all electrical equipment. As the face electrician, I used to "bend the rules" occasionally, BUT if the detector failed to work, that was it I'd shut off power, now way would we cut coal without the detector working, just not worth the risk.
Thank you UA-cam recommended, I literally never asked for this but I appreciate the information about mine explosions.
This should be in Minecraft, it’s faster than a diamond pick.
Right? We're in the dark zone.
I never saw any of these equipment before. Hydraulic moving walls, bendable tracks, crazy.
any thing you can imagine, some company already has a patent on it and is operating it right now, my dad worked in all types of industry and I've seen some crazy machinery, that you would never think could actually work, men have imagined and built alot of incredible machines.
Long wall mining has been around since the 70’s. I actually design these long wall shearers. Been doing it for almost 12 years now. This animation is an oversimplification. I’ve been underground in a long wall mine. It’s quite the experience. It’s impressive what these machines can do. In fact we have some in China that cut almost 30ft high coal seams. (8m)
@@stevevb988 animation does not show how the material is extracted. Please explain.
@@joeskis Mining Engineering student here. Coal broken up by the shearer falls down and out onto a moving chain (the bending black lines in the animation). The chain drags it out to a feeder, which channels the coal onto a conveyor belt that carries it out of the mine for processing.
@@stevevb988 I work in a steel forge making these bars for the conveyors and the teethed sections that the cutters sit on. JOY Mining if you`ve heard of them.
And this is why you don’t take short cuts and let a manager or supervisor tell you to do shit the wrong way.... I hate to say it but some of these people knew the sprayers was not working..... but yet they went to work everyday and didn’t care to fix it or try to get it fixed. I have been on several job sites where the supervisor tells you to do unsafe crap and wants you to work in an unsafe environment. I will speak up and tell em what I think even if we have to fight about it or loose my job over it at least I tried to get stuff fixed before it cost someone there life..... the real question here is how long was the sprayers not working before this happened.....if 14 sprayers was not working properly then this was an on going safety issue that no one cared enough about that it cost 30 people their lives..... the jobs I have worked on , we had a safety meeting every morning or at every shift change. And it would allow problems to be addressed, evaluated and fixed. It’s hard for me to believe these folks let the sprayer system slide like this without being addressed and fixed. Especially In a coal mine where methane gas could be preset at any time.
That is why so many people took the 5th.
Why would a supervisor have to tell you how to take a dump?
@@actsismmljcorrectlyobeyed6190 Taking a dump won't kill you. None functioning safety equipment will kill you. Is that hard for you to understand?
@@Thomas-cu5hp Its way over your head. You don't get it.
Yup...I wrote up lots of safety deficiencies...nothing ever got fixed because it was too expensive or the crushing plant would need to be shut down to correct it. Couldn't even get enough maintenance men because half the county is on meth, pills, or dope.
I watched this video for 13 mins, with zero down time. 🤔😂
zeferino mendez 🤣😂🤣☠️
"With flame propagation speeds approaching 1000 fps & over-pressure at 25 psi, then 65 psi at what point did everybody die?"
Bro, this comment wins. +7 to your ability to convert metric to 32nds.
I'm getting hooked on safety videos and explanations of workplace disasters.
There are bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D programs in Occupational Safety and Health, toxicology, industrial hygiene, and safety engineering. You should explore these. There are people who specialize in accident investigation to determine root causes - and, hopefully, prevent their recurrence.
why did I watch this
same here
because you care
Why are you commenting on something that you didn't watch because you didn't care?
You watch this in hopes to some day get off the "im really stupid because i dont know shit about the world i live in" list eventually.
@Eugene B Lol, best reply I've read for a while!
"A methane ignition occurred, seen by the operators who proceeded to shut down the sheerer *with no down time"*
"I ate Taco Bell, after which a methane ignition occurred and my toilet was at capacity with no downtime"
ua-cam.com/video/HLokEkyDtpU/v-deo.html (here's the meme)
@@roycezaro1998 That made me laugh out loud, thank you.
@@roycezaro1998 xD this guy
ate some del taco after which a methan ignition occured followed by a hershy squirt my shorts where at capacity with significant downtime
Idk who the superintend is but they sure know how to document time.
The old way, you just push all your downtime to the start or the end of shift and call it "scheduled maintence". Luckily in my time mining there has been a strong shift away from this kind of reporting.
No one in an accident investigation should feel the need to plead the fifth. Finding the cause and preventing further loss of life are the priority, not holding one person to account.
Depends on the accident investigation. Junior guys who tend to be scapegoats when the real guilt lies higher should probably always plead the Fifth unless they have a competent lawyer representing them who recommends otherwise.
@@kirstinmorrell No competent lawyer would ever recommend their client do anything but plead the fifth.
Unless the company was violating mine safety laws. When that happens mine owners go to jail.
well they were and none went to jail
I think the mine owners and the senior folks responsible for ensuring the place is safe and in working condition ought to be at risk of being held to account. These guys treat workers like chattel - as long as they coal keeps coming out of the ground, they can sit in their plush, if tacky, offices a hundred miles away and count their money, safety issues and working conditions be damned. That mentality usually ends up being the actual cause, anyway. Super convenient to just stop at the engineering analysis and say "oh! everyone... make sure you're keeping the sprayers working to keep things cool," without ever stopping to ask why non-functional sprayers were ever considered acceptable by leadership to begin with.
4:10 wait, THAT's how big it is? I was picturing something the size of a full-on locomotive
SAME.
It is
Its was bigger. I think a child made this cgi video.
Same
Over 13 minutes and no mention of the death toll...but no shortage of each explosion pressure...thanks
Per Wikipedia: The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5, 2010 roughly 1,000 feet underground in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine located in Montcoal. Twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed. The coal dust explosion occurred at 3:27 pm.
@@fanndisgoldbraid3183 Yeah, but unfortunately Joseph has already moved on and will never see this, and is probably asking Q's elsewhere that he could have found the answer to without putting a finger to keyboard, or even got the answer he was looking for within seconds..........
@@fanndisgoldbraid3183 And why the video creator could not furnish this information?
They mention the deaths during the introduction
New DRINKING game: Take a shot every time he says 'pressure' or 'in-by' or 'long wall'
It takes a brave person to go in a hole and do this. I went down a gold mine in South Dakota to check out a job, but could not get out of there fast enough.
Brain: You haven't studied in 3 days, you have a math exam tomorrow
Me:
So what you’re reporting, is you’ve had 72 hours of downtime.
No1:
UA-cam:U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration
Idk why but I watched this full video and I dont regret it
Question: was this an old room and pillar mine that was converted to longwall? they have a lot of crosscuts for a longwall.
I have the same question.
I'd bet money it was so they could get the last bit out. And I'd bet they were hitting a lot of rock so there wasn't any coal left after the pass. Everything about their operation says fast, no downtime, no coal left behind.
@@EightiesTV I'd say the bits scraping.. the rock.. is where the spark come from!
No. This was always a long wall mine
No it was a longwall mine but but due to your 40 foot cuts in the conventional cm process you cut crosscuts shorter to have more places to move si you can keep moving without stopping.
why were not all the water sprayers working, and when the crewman that reported the fire, why did that operator turn the water off completely ???
Because at the time nothing like this had ever happened. If it's not ESSENTIAL then we keep working. At the time this was a Massey Mine. They take their time fixing things and when the miner is down they lose MILLIONS of dollars. So they kept running it, the Methane built up behind the miner and then the mine exploded and the belt line caught fire, then it collapsed.
Don the Con saved a penny at the risk of miner's lives,I believe the lack of wanting to use the correct amount of rock dust properly required ,safety rules that were hard to follow as I believe the Con required hourly production reports & down time making the miners feel in a state of constant rushing/hurrying for fear of their jobs & everyone knows the least productive can & will be laid off/fired for no reason & I'm pretty sure this was non-union,so to answer your question I would say out of Don the Con Blankenshit's greed a lack of rockdust cost 29 lives & families lives to be ruined & changed forever due to no fault of the miners! Con more than likely fought the families as much as possible to keep from paying them benefits for their loss of a loved 1 & to make it worse fought it in court to blame it on a "coal miner's negligence" which is not true because the 1st thing they think of when riding the belt/car down that deep dark hole is putting in their shift to provide for their family & than return home safely to that home & family waiting for him/her!
@@kaymadden9669 So this is the famous Blankenshit's Disaster. Didn't know, they seem to try to keep his name out of it in the report and didn't even mention any fatalities. I'm sure he's a powerful asshole in the area and has to be protected ya know. So sad that they put production over lives, but that is what they call MBO. Management By Objective, is a corporate management tool. It was used by McNamara in Vietnam. In that version it was body count. Here it was production by tons per day or per shift no doubt. MBO creates a focus on production without looking at the big picture and can be the road to hell imho.
@@garywheeler7039 That information is on the website, tool. This video isn't a VICE hit piece, its a safety video.
@@RobinTheBot Pretty lousy safety video that doesn't talk about at all about the victims! What website, tool?
I still remember the day many ambulances flew past the house, thankfully my father left Massey and went to ICG a short time before this happened. Rip to all 29.
How sad...any mining death is a tragedy. I don't want to get involved in all the "who's fault is it?" back and forth. I just want to express my thanks and respect to those men who gave their lives. I come from a mining town (Butte, MT) and we've had our share of the same type of tragedy. It's a shame....Long live our Miners!!!
Pure management fault. Shortcuts were ordered to make money. Managers should have gone to prison for life.
I live in W.V. I remember this day very well. A sad day for our state. Workers worked night and day to get these men out of that mine.
Why was this in my feed?
if you watched minecraft, or a survival game, then the algorithm put this in your feed, and if you are like me, you watched it....
Anybody else realize 15 days later, there was the Deepwater Horizon explosion? Seems like 2010 was a bad year for disasters.
Did you mean to say: "Seems like the 2010s was a bad decade for disasters"?
@@damnits2200 There were a few other things that happened that year too. I was going through the deep dark parts of youtube, and there were more disasters in 2010 as well.
There was so many problems here, lack of experience, improper rockdust or lack thereof, low ventilation, and the people that claimed the 5th are the ones that would be liable for this issue. Yes the men working there are as much to blame as the ones that let it get this way
It would be hard to use the 5th, mines run on paperwork, ie as an electrician, I had to perform Planned Maintenance, , that was daily inspections of electrical equipment in my panel, weekly examinations, Monthly, three monthly and annual. Each had it's limitations, daily was visual inspections all the way up to Annual, which meant a full external and internal inspection of my equipment, then dated and signed to be filed away. Each shift, my daily end of shift reports had to be initialed by my engineer, Under Manager and Manager, so any defects noted by everyone who needed to know and filed away.
@@yauwohn If you really ever worked underground you know better!
Each mine operator has to submit a ventilation plan to MSHA before they can produce coal at the mine. Throughout the life of the mine, changes must be made to that plan as the mine develops. A short time before this explosion, the operator had submitted changes to the ventilation plan that would have addressed the problem of the methane seeping out from behind the shields. MSHA rejected this plan thinking that they knew better. There are some folks at MSHA who are also liable for these miner’s death. You’ll never hear about that.
Probably the biggest takeaway here is this: compartmentalizing sections of this huge mine should've been deployed to constain the spread of this rapidly moving methan fire. Would've cut down on death and destruction immensely. Very nicely done animation.
Too much force and impractical since it must be ventilated.
Not sure if you watched the video but the methane explosion happened due to dry conditions at the face and after the initial methane explosion it was coal dust blowing up.
@@Mic_Glowalso, a lack of rock dust!
@@scarface9617 yes lack of rock dust is a very good point that with sprays not working and poor ventiltion spells disaster
@@navyseal7036 yessir! I always did put my dust on a lil'thick! I can understand the sprayers (tips) getting clogged up here and there.. but there is just no excuse for the ventilation being bad. But.. it's to late.. once something like this happens buddy!(🤝)
I would think the sprayers would be something that would be kept on.Hands down I have the most respect for the men that keep the lights on its something I cant do.
I'm an underground coal miner. It's rough work. But it's a lot like being in the army. The men you work with become your brothers. You love them. they are your family. We protect one another and when something like this happens We all die together. It's a bit more comforting.
Can't get it to wet, you will be in a foot of mud working all day!
Technical documentary - NOT
entertaining but it's informative
Sennghenyd 1901 ,81 of 82 working in collery killed in gas explosion, 1913 same pit 439 killed ,gas explosion again. Abercarn colliery 1878 ,268 men and boys killed in firedamp blast. Risca colliery 1880 ,120 men killed in gas explosion. Six bells colliery 1960, 47 men killed in gas explosion. Abervan 1966 coal spoil tip slips due to it situated over a spring that was known about. it slid down the mountain and as soon as it stopped I am informed set like concrete. It buried the local junior school killing 116 children and 28 adults . This was all within about a 10 miles radius we do not have statues around us we have memorials in the Welsh valleys.
10 miles is too close, that's fucking freaky.
It's geology it's high quality anthracite and cokeing coal in deep mines prone to firedamp methane etc, it was needed in the steel industry along with the ore and copious supplies of water all found in the area .
Peg James,I don't know how old you are,but great of you to highlight how much suffering there was in the Mining Industry,just to make Coal-owners Richer and Fatter.I watched the BBC News coverage, on old Black and White Television,in 1966,the day that the Aberfan disaster had happened,after my just finishing a hard shift down a wet,rough,dangerous hell-hole,Called Choppington B Pit..[the "High Pit"],I was 22 years old,and coal cutting and hand-filling on a coalface where the roof used to lower with extreme pressure,as every minute passed..roof falls were frequent..men killed and injured frequently,yet even in the 1960's, the National Coal Board took no action to prevent these dangers to the workforce....it was sometimes difficult to even claim any compensation..to my mind ,any loss of life is a disaster,even one person,...but the NCB,in it's wisdom,defined a Disaster,as the loss of "FIVE OR MORE LIVES"...and I say..try telling ONE Widow and her Children,that their loved one isn't coming home from the pit,but it isn't a Disaster.......
@@highpitwilma what got me was the NCB refusing to accept full responsibility financially, and 150,000 pounds was used from the disaster fund to remove what remained of the spoil heap,and it was not until the 1990s did the high court rule it be repaid By the way I remember dependant on what day it was meant the ebbw was black from the collery , red from the steel works or a brown sludge colour,and every spare bit of ground had a waste tip on it but lots of places for us 10 year olds to have a big adventure playground. I was 10 when aberfan occured.
Worked in this mine for 7 months on hoot owl shift, moved to VA 5 months before disaster. rip
Very fortunate! So you would know there were many safety concerns in this mine?
To say the least big reason i left my brother still works un the mines in northern WV
You should live where these longwall mines pass under people's property. Lakes disappear, creeks, farms are destroyed by swamps created and roads sink. The only thing law requires are the buildings repaired. Unlike room and pillar longwall take all the coal and subsidence assured. Natural gas is not this destructive.
You need to get your facts straight. All of what your saying is not true
Interstate 70 at PA-WV border. Don't talk, you are uninformed. I am a certified miner that left the industry. observer-reporter.com/news/localnews/interstate-restrictions-planned-today-near-west-alexander/article_8c5acc70-39f3-11e9-ad85-db5113b2c1af.html
As am I dipshit actually 5 year mine foreman. Room and pillar also removes all the coal. Thats what screwed murray in utah. I 70 at wv and pa is not from mining.
@@JasonTate86 ...Sorry mate,but you are also wrong,or,you haven't explained how Bord and Pillar,[ or Room and pillar..same thing!],extract all the coal!! ..the purpose of Bord and Pillar is exactly as it says!...you take out the roadways and Intersections..["Stentons" here in Northumberland UK],and you LEAVE in the Pillars!...this is called "Partial Extraction"..as opposed to Longwall mining which is "Total Extraction"..and the pillars which are left in,support the strata and Property or land on the surface.
We were mining Bord and Pillar by hand,in the UK,long before your Country was even inhabited by the Goldrush generation!
I know nothing of what happened in Utah,but Subsidence is Subsidence all the world over,and although Rules and Regulations were introduced by the British Government in 1947,and 1954,in the Coalmining Industry,Officials underground still gave the miners orders to mine past Boundaries set by the Mine Surveyors...and actually mined under property...a lot of which was never recorded..I know personally,because I had to follow orders,as did all the other Miners at the pit where I worked....or I should have said... ONE of the pits where I worked![over a period of thirty years,from 1959 - on!... with 7 years as a Mine Deputy/Overman]..
The only way you could turn Partial extraction [Bord and Pillar] into TOTAL extraction,would be to set up small Retreater faces,usually 60 yards in length.Our Pillars were 60 yards by 60 yards square..as depicted in this Animation.
The only thing that puzzles me here is the plan is ALL Bord and Pillar...and I am wondering where the Longwall Face is among all this!! methinks somebody cocked up somewhere!
I currently work with a miner who survived this explosion, he was at the portal during the time of the explosion which is the only reason he survived. He was supposed to be on the face that day and all of his friends died.
I know absolutely nothing about mining. If they were mining the face of the coal seam in long straight cuts, what was the purpose of all the small intersecting tunnels off to the sides of the coal seam?
to aid in ventilation and to move around in the mine
I was working at Cliffs in Beckley, when this happened and it really hit home when you do this job everyday day in day out it's always in the back of your mind that something is going to go very wrong not if but when and as a mine electrician/mechanic theres been many times we were told to take short cuts to make it run, put a sock over the gas sniffers, take short cuts on cable spliced, etc.but as a second gen.miner you just go to work and think about that paycheck and why your there and how hard it is to get a job making the kind of money we do without a college education.I just thank God for keeping me and my (brothers) co-workers safe for over the past 15yrs and ongoing. Prayers to all the ones effected by this tragic accident.
Don't you guys have a union, I'm an electrician, before I got in the union, my bosses made us work on stuff hot all the time, getting shocked was a weekly event, sometimes many times a day, I'm lucky I lived through the first 15 years of being an electrician, then I got in the union, and never had to work on anything hot again, the owners never asked us to work hot because they knew it was wrong, and the union would come after them if they tried, I would think if you see unsafe working conditions, your union would back you up for reporting them?
This is a great video thank you for sharing and making available. I always watch industrial investigations and this one i have not seen before. Thank you. Very interesting information here. I hope everyone is safe that was involved.
tungsten..didn't you see the death toll?
Lack of proper stone dusting in the Westray Mine in Stellarton Nova Scotia was the primary cause of the explosion which also killed 299 miners.
26 miners died. A tad short of 299.
But is the shearer towards the tailgate or the headgate???
So this is how modern coal mining works. Not the incident itself, but all the equipment that's used, like that cool-looking shearer.
Yup, from pickaxes to machines. Job pays well too, but it is risky business.
Remember this WV as you head to the polls tomorrow.
That's exactly why I'm here. No relation to mining in any way but heard Don the Con Blankenship was actually in the hunt Friday.. What in God's green earth are W.Virginians thinking?? You'd expect a man who killed 29 people in an industry that connects the entire state would be so reviled he wouldn't even get out of single digit polling numbers!
Did they not have stone dust bags and on the walls back then ?
The shock front overpressures in this explosion was like a damned NUKE went off in there.
20 psi is enough to destroy reinforced concrete buildings
5 psi is enough to destroy typical residential homes and wood frame construction.
Fascinating. Really shows how one spark cascades into a disaster down there.
Only at certain percentages of methane, 5-15%. Most countries require power be removed at 1 1/4 percent, and all men withdrawn to safety at around 2% methane.
the "map" of the explosion at the end is top-down view? how big are the individual squares, like how long is the side of the square? the way i understood it, each of them is one shield wall so like 100-200 meters
would spays behind the roof supports have slowed the flames or put it out ?
Can I use this animation video in my channel for educational purposes.
The guys that pleaded the 5th where all bosses!
When mine safety laws are violated upper management and mine ownership go to jail. The fact that they pleaded the fifth suggests they know they were breaking the law but they didn't care.
@@jamesricker3997 .I am in the UK,where we have our own MINES AND QUARRIES ACT,so I am wondering what this "5th" is,that everyone mentions in their comments,could you please explain? Thanks and Cheers!
@@highpitwilma The 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In a nutshell, it is The right to protection from self incrimination", (One can "Invoke the 5th Amendment rather than answer any questions by Law Enforcement in the USA if they are being deposed, While under simple questioning, Not under court order, "You have the right to remain Silent") It may seem wrong in this instance, but it was created to protect the "innocent" from forced confession, and perhaps only to stop endless interrogation. It basically puts the onus of proof on the investigating agency.
What happened to the stonedust, do they not erect stonedust barriers and blow stoneduct onto the sidewalls? This would not have prevented the methane explosion but would have prevented the coaldust explosion.
how are you even supposed to prevent this
Ah I see that about a year ago youtube recommendations brought us all here, I wonder if/when it'll happen again
Oh I have A comment . I was laid off from the only job I have ever had that I actually enjoyed . The coal mines in southwest Virginia are the safest place in the world . It's A dangerous job do not get me wrong . I only worked for A few years underground but the time I was underground I always felt safe . The only reason that I felt safe was the people . The best people I have ever met in my life . Hardest working , most intelligent , down to earth people you would ever meet . The mines that have been shut down in this area have devastated the economy . They just shut down A whole hospital In Lee county . The effects are on our jobs . Now there are a few large mines still open for NOW . But all of that coal goes to China , to support the steel industry that left the rust belt behind . I worked my butt off to get the best job of my life and then politicians threw it away for Fracking . I mean come on have you even looked into what kind of chemicals they are pumping into our ground water . These people do not care . They make their millions , billions and move to another country leaving us with out any jobs . Were drinking hydrochloric acid ...THEY....... Then say " Well it's good for the environment " ......are you freaking kidding me .
Please people reading this spend a few moments of your time and look into fracking
They say coal is bad ........it's not the environment they care about it's their buddies bank accounts that change the policies in this country . Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely .....................GodSpeed ......................
....................The Cracken ................................................................
Electon Mechnix If we were drinking hydrochloric acid we'd all be dead.
only noticed "down to Earth" 😂
You face this kind of danger mining and bitch when people shut down coal mines? You sir or Ma'am are a fucking lunatic.
I'm proud to say that I work at a Coal Mine in Southern West Virginia. Right on the Boone/Logan county line. I'm DAMN proud to be a coal miner. I graduated high school and I'm going to college as well to be an Electrician underground. i LOVE what I do. These men are my brothers. Id lay down my life for anyone of them as they would me if I needed!
You don't understand that Mining coal in Southern West Virginia is the ONLY thing we have here! There is no industry. You either mine coal or work at McDonald's. I have a family of 4 including myself and I REFUSE to flip burgers. Mining is all I know, all I wanna do and all I'm GOING to do for the rest of my life. Sure, It might kill me. But at least while I'm working I KNOW my family is taken good care of. The mines are picking back up now that Obama is gone. Everything should go back to the way it was.
The mine owner responsible for this disaster had a lengthy trial, was only charged with a misdemeanor and served one year in prison. He's done nothing but whine about the one year and misdemeanor charge. His campaign for governor was pretty much a "give me pitty" tour.
Actually, Don Blankenship ran for the Senate and lost. His history demonstrates his appropriateness as a staunch Trumpist - a complete disregard for workers in exchange for maximizing profits. As a soulless crook who actually once said conserving gasoline in the 70's was tantamount to the introduction of "communism", he would have made a perfect addition to the current administration. I'm actually surprised he hasn't been nominated for something.
whiteknightcat You are correct, not sure how I messed that up. I had to suffer through all his SENATE mailing and commercials.
Seems odd to click "like" for this. And I admit 70 % of the engineering jargon was over my head. But, an engaged intellect allows a certain apathy none the less. A catastrophic disaster occurred, multiple lives were lost. We must remember to mourn and honor the dead.
And above all, to make sure it never happens again.
And I thought 40 years of truck driving was tough.
So no one got sucked down the mineshaft when the fire burnt up all the oxygen?
Thanks, UA-cam algorithms.
If they had rockdusted like they were supposed to this wouldnt have happened.Don Blankenship has this on his conscience...that is if he has one
He don't
Having watched a few IED vids, it seems that blast overpressure of 5 psi is sufficient to cook one's goose.
So practically everybody in this mine got theirs cooked? (Sorry I didn't read/watch all.)
Robert Alexander didn’t say
+6 PSI is the line around a nuclear blast where death is assured and structures are demolished. You've seen the video or gif. Large parts of this mine saw 6 PSI, 12 PSI, 20 PSI, and up to 105 PSI.
Only two of the 31 people inside the mine at the time of the explosion survived.
how many passes was it again?
did they escape?
Unfortunately no.
6:00 to save time then 8:05 That is about it.
We make the bars at work that drag the coal out attached to the chains. JOY mining.
What happens to the space behind the roof supports
It collapses as the shields move forward
Remember the old story about 'the want of a shoe'?
The real problem isn't the gas...it's the coal dust!! A gas explosion is only a problem until the fire consumes the gas; but if it ignites the trillions of tiny (smaller than the eye can see) dust particles, the entire mine can go up. It did, in this case.
If only the shearer's water jets were not defective!! They failed to keep the coal dust down during cutting. I was shaking my head at this before I even know what the outcome was.
I imagine this would be quite informative to a miner. We mere surface living mortals likely do not understand the terminology or the graphics used.
Ted Smith - I really liked the _”out-by”_ and _”in-by”_ directionality they used...
Why do I watch these? Why are they recommended to me? The UA-cam recommendations and my interests are two very strange mistresses.
Sooo...did all the windows get blown out?
UA-cam recommended this to me about 800 times
How come no one mentions that MSHA made them change ventilations just a couple of days earlier,
To George Jetson, I understand that you have that 5000-23 paperwork, all that is is an annual refresher. YOUR MINING CERTIFICATION COMES FROM WHATEVER STATE YOU WORK IN!!!!!! For example, I have my West Virginia black hat card, my Ohio black hat card and my Pennsylvania black hat card. As well as having my West Virginia assistant mine foreman papers. Every certification I have has been issued THROUGH THE STATE that I’ve worked in.
So the mine was engulfed in a firestorm.
...but did it collapse? Was anyone hurt?
29 of 31 died
@8:04 there's your Michael Bay moment KEERRRVLOOOOOM
They obviously didn't use stonedust to counter coaldust, i used stonedust back in the 80's when i worked in the coalmines of South Africa, stonedust was applied when the workface was more than 10 meters ahead, the special properties of the stonedust prevents coaldust to ignite when kicked of the walls by a methane explosion.
Well I'm glad to say I understood less than half of this video.
Also how did I get here from John Carpenter soundtracks!?
Anyone remember EDC in Hannah Wyo. late 70s? Do they not rock-dust anymore? You've never seen such blackness when your helmet light was switched off.
I never thought about that statement" we hit a natural gas well" by Blankenship until after this video. In reality, a large methane concentration will burn slow around the edges, but coal dust when it kicks up will detonate with its own flame front traveling faster than the methane flame front. Any one thing could have stopped that... not grinding down to rock to get the last ounce of coal out would have cut down on sparks. Running the sprayers would have cut down on ignition when there were sparks... Limestone would have made the huge amount of coal dust less explosive... Seals would have slowed propagation until the flame front died out or was too slow to kick up the dust. It was a chain that would have been stopped if any link were broken.
Guys, this is an MSHA illustrative report, it's 'business work'. If you're bored and not getting it, it's not for you. Don't complain.
This is the type of movie Tyler Durden would watch.
Watching video for 8 minutes, no down time, and 15 cheetos eaten...
I never knew until just this moment that I apparently do long wall mining in Minecraft.
How many if any people died
+Chayce Mihalicz 29 men lost their lives here.
29 men lost their lives.
@@holeefuksumtingwong5788 wait how? a fire started, they were evacuating. how did so many die?
@@Normandy-e8i They were evacuating the mine but by the time the one section found out about the fire they had already been trapped by it and there was so much smoke in the mine they couldn't see to escape. So they slowly died.
@@holeefuksumtingwong5788 oof that sounds shiiitt
Pretty scary stuff...there are a lot of potential hazards waiting to be let loose.
I feel like I just walked through a doorway with a sign on it that said "mine disaster" and a room full of confused people watching UA-cam is what I found.. sup guys?
They draw the flame fronts all slow and stuff but they are talking supersonic shock wave velocities and pressures like you'd get near a nuclear explosion. Those famous nuke test videos where you see houses blown to bits were at 5 to 10 PSI in many cases. A 20 PSI shock front will ratfuck pretty much everything.
Did they die?
Did they use this as an excuse to call off work the next day?
And then what happened?
How did I get sucked into this video
Why working units wasn't stop after methane detction? I would vent the mine...
BTW - that is WHY i'm with nuclear energy - nothing in uranium mine or thorium beach can caugh fire and explode....
Uranium powders are flammable. But yeah
uranium is literally used in armor piercing bullets because it tends to violently ignite and burn any people in the vehicle it was shot at
@@Raeffi3 I thought it was bc depleted uranium is denser than lead
@@johnballs1352 that too
Today I learned the area behind the shield on an automated shearer is called a "gob."
If this mines would have been rock dusted like it was supposed to be this would have never happened.
What is "rock dusting"? Is it spraying water to keep the dust down?
Rock dust is somthing you put on the roof and rib of the mines that covers the coal dust and keeps it from lifting and exploding.
No it wasn't. If rock dusted properly when the explosion happened it wouldn't have traveled like it did. Rock dust would have kept the coal dust from exploding.
***** even off it had knocked it off rock dust is made to stick to coal dust to weigh it down so there fore they didn't rock dust and the water sprayers like it said were absent the water sprayers are supposed to keep the dust down as well
+Robbie Williams Yep. Plus I believe the crushed rock dust mixed with the crushed coal dust changes the ignition point of the mixed-combined dusts, so that it has less chance of exploding. Miners, let us know. I'd also add, that this is also an indication that the gob wasn't being ventilated fully.
If only they'd used a field of half-seized sprats and brass fitted nickle slits for the bracketed caps and splay flexed brace columns to dampen the hatches to 0.5 meters.
Are those bracketed caps of the trapezoidal parsement type?
My dad used to work at that mine many years ago.
that specific one?
"At approximately 8:07 AM, Silly Sally sold seashells by the seashore."
I have always believed that if there were the amount of air in the face that the law requires, it would have been impossible for this explosion to happen.
Where do I download this game?
Men's lives were lost,mate,and Women and their Kids left without a Husband and Dad,respectively...now we miners all have a gud sense of humour here in the North-east of England UK[Geordie land!]..but this is no time for joking...so stick with your X-Box.