WHITESVILLE, W.Va. — It’s been 16 years since an underground explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 workers for Massey Energy.
The sad occasion was marked Sunday with flowers and visitors to the massive UBB Memorial at Whitesville and again Monday in Beckley on the grounds of the Raleigh County courthouse at another marker in their memory. In Beckley, the names of each of the 29 men who perished that day were read aloud.
David Hodges was the incident commander at UBB. He knew the situation was bad within moments of arriving on the scene.
“When I arrived at the mine I knew we were further along into this incident than what was initially being put out by the company. There was a mine rescue vehicle already there. These aren’t people who show up immediately but there was a team that was already there,” said Hodge.
Hodge remembered in a conversation on MetroNews Talkline the presence of a mine rescue team was the first tipoff that this was a bad situation, but it didn’t take long to see the extent of what they would be dealing with.
“Within the first seven minutes the first mantrip came out from underground. There was nine guys on it, two of them were permanently affected and seven others who were unresponsive. I knew it was going to be bad from that point,” he said.
Hodges said the initial resources were scarce. He struggled to muster ambulances. The nearest one to Whitesville was 26 miles away, on a winding mountain road. Over the course of the search a total of 32 ambulances ended up on the scene along multiple mine rescue teams who continued to search the mine slowly and methodically. Well before it was released to the public, the rescuers knew all but four of the bodies had been found, but they were not recovered. Hodges said instead, their location was marked and the rescue teams pressed on.
“The mine rescue teams are no different than firefighters or EMS workers, they are true first responders. Their goal was the rescue part, so there was no recovery for several days until they found the final guys because they were holding against all hope they would find those final four guys had reached a safety chamber, ” he explained.
They unfortunately had not and 29 men were killed and two more were permanently injured in the explosion which sent fire through the entries of the vast underground maze. It was one of the most deadly mine accidents in years, not only in West Virginia but in the nation.
People waited anxiously and in constant prayer asking for a miracle during the difficult days of the search which did not come. Today the black granite marker at Whitesville pays tribute to the memory of the 29 men who died with their silhouettes on the front of the marker and their names on the back. It’s become the symbol of healing in the Whitesville community and draws visitors from all over the nation to learn about the disaster on April 5, 2010.