State leaders called on West Virginia residents Friday to not forget the lives of the 29 coal miners who died April 5, 2010 in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin placed a black ribbon at the base of the West Virginia Coal Miner Statue at the state capitol complex Friday morning. The governor also placed a picture taken during the 2010 memorial service.
At 3:01 p.m on April, 5, 2010 an explosion, fueled by coal dust, moved through the underground mine owned by Massey Energy. Miners at the face and miners heading out for a shift change were killed.
U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller said in a prepared statement that West Virginia still aches with the memory of what happened at UBB. Rockefeller recently reintroduced a mine safety bill in the Senate. He says more needs to be done to protect miners.
“It is my hope that we can work together on even stronger safety laws, training and technology. Our miners and their families and memories of those lost deserve nothing less,” Rockefeller said.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts said in a prepared statement the families of the UBB victims should be kept first and foremost in the hearts and prayers of everyone.
“Their grief is never-ending, their loss is still as raw as it was that terrible day,” Roberts said. “It is a travesty that we have reached this point so long after this tragedy occurred and Congress still has not done anything to improve mine safety and health laws, so that other families won’t have to suffer as the Upper Big Branch families have.”
Third District Congressman Nick Rahall, who spent hours with the UBB families as they waited on word of what had happened three years ago, said he will always pause to remember this day.
“I will never, ever forget those men, those brothers in Heaven, and I will continue to strive to honor their memories by fighting to ensure that no others will perish as they did. I am committed to the difficult, necessary fight for safer mines and I have, again, introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to achieve that goal.
“It is not enough merely to think back, to mourn, and to wish. That does not do justice to those we lost. We must act,” Rahall said.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, who was governor at the time, says there’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about UBB.
“I want to assure those families, the people of our state and this country that we’re absolutely and totally committed to the safety of every mining worker. Our miners should wake up in the morning and expect to come home safely to their loved ones at night,” Manchin said.
The names of the UBB victims:
– Carl Acord, 52.
– Jason Atkins, 25.
– Christopher Bell, 33.
– Gregory Steven Brock, 47.
– Kenneth Allan Chapman, 53.
– Robert Clark, 41.
– Charles Timothy Davis, 51.
– Cory Davis, 20.
– Michael Lee Elswick, 56.
– William I. Griffith, 54.
– Steven Harrah, 40.
– Edward Dean Jones, 50.
– Richard K. Lane, 45.
– William Lynch, 59.
-Nicholas Darrell McCroskey, 26.
– Joe Marcum, 57.
– Ronald Lee Maynor, 31.
– James E. Mooney, 50.
– Adam Keith Morgan, 21.
– Rex L. Mullins, 50.
– Joshua S. Napper, 25.
– Howard D. Payne, 53.
– Dillard Earl Persinger, 32.
– Joel R. Price, 55.
– Deward Scott, 58.
– Gary Quarles, 33.
– Grover Dale Skeens, 57.
– Benny Willingham, 61.
– Ricky Workman, 50.