History of the Disaster
Four months before May 20, 1948, work was resumed in the 19-left section of the mine after a 22-year interval. The goal was to help straighten a pillar line and retrieve room pillars of the #1 and #2 rooms. Three parceled mined coal pillars, 150 feet wide, were driven through these rooms and left for protection when inbye room, and the entry pillars were mined in 1926. Company officials reported that #1 and #2 rooms were pillared successfully with no trouble.
There were no issues until May 19, when the fire boss reported that excessive weight in 19 Left was breaking in the top, ribs, and timbers to the left. The fire boss’s report the following day stated that undue weight was breaking the ribs and heavy mountain shots were coming from 19 Left. On May 20, the dayshift foreman indicated in his report that “some loading delays were caused by bumps in the 19-left section.” The ribs in the #1 and #2 rooms have been crushing for several days.
At around 2:30 pm on May 20, a seismic eruption of the coal in the mine called a coal bump, occurred when a mining machine was making a center cut in the #2 room off 19 Left. The mining machine was thrown 15 to 18 feet, breaking the cutter bar into two pieces. Nearly 40 tons of coal in carloads were dislodged, fracturing the ribs of a machine man. The general mine foreman and assistant superintendent inspected the #1 and #2 rooms between 4:15 pm and 5:00 pm. They reported that “the roof and coal were working less at the time of inspection than at any time during the week” and saw no reason the nightshift employees could not load coal in this area of the mine.
On the evening of May 20 at 6 pm, the second-shift crew was coming into work. They begin their shift in the #2 room, loading eight cars of loose coal dislodged by the coal bump from 2:30 pm. At about 8 pm, a second coal bump occurred while the crew was loading coal in the #2 room, and about two carloads of coal flew, slightly injuring the loading machine operator’s arm. After the loading machine was moved to room No. 1 in the mine, the machine man and shot firer drilled and prepared four or five shot holes to blast in the bottom bench of the #2 room because the top bench of coal was covered with six to ten feet more with coal.
The machine man said the shot firer left to visit the explosives-storage boxes after charges were prepared for blasting, and he made the final preparations for blasting. He fired the blast while standing in the right crosscut of the #1 room, and another coal bump happened within minutes following the discharge and before moving from where he fired the blast. The loading machine operator and his helper, two timbermen, a trackman, and a slate picker were killed in the right crosscut.
The machine man and shot firer were slightly injured and freed themselves from the loose coal. They met up with the breakman, the motorman, and the section foreman. They called company officials before attempting to recover the bodies. Company officials ordered the five survivors to stay by the telephone until help arrived. The bodies were recovered and brought to the surface by 2:00 am. After rescue operations were completed, the Bureau of Mines office in Norton, VA arrived at the mine at 3:30 am; no one was there.
The investigation of the mine revealed that caves were not made on the central pillar line before being abandoned in 1926. The two coal bumps were inevitable when the pillar was split by driving two openings toward the old workings. An article in the Dickenson County Herald published on May 27, 1948, said, “Meanwhile, the United Mine Workers Union at Washington issued a statement saying that the union sent warning April 13 to the Clinchfield Coal Corporation about safety conditions at the Dante mines. The union spokesman said that the federal mine inspectors visited the Dante mines from February 26 to March 3 and reported that the management had failed to correct 31 out of 73 safety violations found in a previous inspection.”