Wade, Coal Mine Safety varies greatly according to the individual mine, the company and its degree of emphasis on safety, and the miners themselves.
Way back in 1974-75 I worked underground at Mid-continent Coal and Coke's Coal Basin mines west of Redstone. I had been working in hard-rock mining but wanted to see what coal mining was like. These mines produced Metallurgical Grade hard coal, which went primarily to steel plants such as the one near Salt Lake City. There were five mines arranged around the perimiter of Coal Basin and high up on the mountainsides.
Mid-continent's mines had the reputation as some of the steepest and most-dangerous mines in this country. I worked in Coal Basin No. 3, which was on a steep decline in a thick seam of coal. Above the seam was a hard rock layer which continually slipped "downhill" as the coal was mined from beneath it, causing umerous "bounces" each shift. These bounces filled the air with coal dust and broken coal would cascade down from the walls or ribs onto any miners or machines which happened to be near them. Adding to the danger was a very high methane gas content.
Not soon after I quit to go back to the safer industry of railroading, my crew experienced a methane explosion which killed two of my former crewmates and left the loader operator with broken eardrums. (I had been the loader operator when I left.) The next year, if my memory is correct, they killed 13 guys at No. 5 mine in a similar explosion. The detonation on my former crew was caused by the young crew foreman who would ignore the methane monitor and continue cutting coal even when the gas was at the explosion point of 5 to 15% methane to air ratio. In an apparent effort to keep up production levels, the continuous miner (machine) evidently struck the rock above and created a spark. That bad practice was the main reason I decided to quit the coal mine.
Those mines are now closed, thankfully, and a large plaque is located next to the highway just outside of Redstone.
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