Consol No. 9 Mine

Farmington, W.Va
Farmington Victims Left Legacy to Nation's Miners
by Davitt McAteer
Assistant Secretary of Labor
for Mine Safety and Health

Farmington (Marion County, West Virginia, USA) No.9 Mine ExplosionConsolidation Coal Co. MineNovember 20, 1968

This list contains the names of the men who died in the mine explosion takenfrom court papers from the “Circuit Court Of Marion County”, civil action numbers 3582 and 3590.
78 Men Who Perished in the Mine Explosion*19 Men Were Never Recovered
Arthur A. Anderson
Jack O. Armstrong
Thomas D. Ashcraft
Jimmy Barr
Orvil D. Beam
John J. Bingamon
Thomas Boggess
Louis S. Boros
Howard W. Butt
Lee Edman Carpenter
David V. Cartwright
William E. Currence
Dale E. Davis
Albert Ray DeBerry
George O. Decker
Howard A. Deel
James Eli Efaw
Joe Ferris
Virgil A. Forte
Hilery Foster
Aulda G. Freeman
John Frank Gouzd
Charles F. Hardman
Ebert Hartzell
Simon P. Hayes
Paul F. Henderson Jr.
Steve Horvath
Junior M. Jenkins
James Jones
Pete J. Kaznoski
Robert D. Kerns
Charles E. King
James R. Kniceley
George R. Kovar
David Mainella
Dennis McDonald
Walter Rex Martin
Frank MatishHartsel
LeeJack Duane Michael
Emilio Megna
Wayne R. Minor
Charles E. Moody
Paul O. Moran
Adron W. Morris
Randall R. Parsons
Raymond R. Parsons
Joseph MutoNicholas
Petrofred B. Rogers
William D. Sheme
Robert J. Sigley
Henry J. Skarzinski
Russell D. Snyder
John Sopuch
Jerry L. Stoneking
Harry L. Strait
Albert Takacs
William L. Takacs
Dewey Tarley
Frank Tate, Jr.
Goy A. Taylor
Hoy D. Taylor
Edwin A. Tennant
Homer E. Tichenor
Dennis L. Toler
John Wesley Toothman
Gorman H. Trimble
Roscoe Triplet
James H. Walter
William T. Walker
Lester Burl Willard
Edward A. Williams
Lloyed W. Wilson
Jerry R. Yanero

Thirty years ago, on November 19, 1968, the night crew of the Consol No. 9 Mine, near Farmington, W.Va., headed underground at midnight. Nothing happened that would suggest this night's work would be different from any other. Typically, there was humor and horseplay as the miners got ready to start another working shift deep underground.
As big as Manhattan Island, the mine was just a few miles down the road from Monongah, W.Va., site of the worst mine disaster in U.S. history--a December 1907 explosion that killed at least 362 miners.
About 5:30 a.m. on November 20, an explosion of nightmarish proportions ripped through the Farmington mine. A full 12 miles away in Fairmont, W.Va., a motel clerk felt his chair rock under him and thought the rear section of the motel had exploded. But area miners knew what the noise meant. As they rushed to the mine site, fire spread rapidly.
Within several hours of the first explosion, 21 miners struggled to the surface over various tortuous routes. But 78 others remained missing.
The media dug in at Farmington, the first major mine disaster of the television age, relaying follow-up explosions and suspenseful rescue attempts to the nation's living rooms in play-by-play detail.
By November 29, readings of underground gases taken at drill holes showed the air underground could not support life, and rescuers finally admitted defeat. To starve raging fires of oxygen, all surface entrances were sealed. A world of holiday-season sympathy focused on Farmington as the mine was sealed.
Almost one year later, recovery work resumed. But progress was slowed by necessary tasks such as loading rock falls, replacing ventilation and transportation facilities, and driving new entries into the mine to bypass caved-in areas.
Attempts to recover the bodies of missing miners continued for nearly 10 years. At last, the effort was given up and all mine entrances permanently sealed. The bodies of 59 disaster victims had been brought to the surface, but 19 remain forever entombed in the Farmington mine.
The ignition source that set off the original explosion never could be determined. But investigators did find a classic combination of factors that could have set the stage: inadequate ventilation, inadequate control of explosive methane gas and coal dust, and inadequate testing for methane.
Helping to galvanize the forces of reform within Congress, the Farmington disaster was a catalyst for passage of the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act. That law strengthened safety standards, increased Federal mine inspections, and gave coal miners specific safety and health rights.
Since the Farmington explosion, the coal mines of the United States have become safer places to work.
Deaths in the Nation's coal mines dropped from 203 in 1969 to 30 last year. Coal mine tragedies have continued to occur--too many--but fortunately, never again on the scale of the Farmington explosion.
The potential for a mine explosion still confronts underground coal miners today, demanding constant vigilance, especially in this winter season when dry air and drops in barometric pressure raise the risk. But because of the Farmington tragedy, miners and mine operators today have stronger defenses to aid them in their vigilance against disaster--including frequent Federal inspections, safety training, and better technology.
The legacy of the Farmington disaster did not end with the 1969 Coal Act. That law in turn served as a model for the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which protects workers in a wide range of industries.
In 1977, after a disastrous silver mine fire and another coal mine explosion that killed 26, Congress strengthened the Coal Act and also extended it to the metal and nonmetal mining industry.
Today, thousands upon thousands of workers beyond the coal industry indirectly owe the Federal safety and health protection upon which they rely to the Farmington disaster.
At this time of year, the thoughts of many of us in northern West Virginia inevitably return to the tragedy of November 20, 1968, and to the families of those who died. Nothing can restore the lives lost at Farmington. Even 30 years later, nothing can erase the pain of that loss. Yet the miners who died in that historic explosion did not die in vain. Their legacy remains, enshrined in law as well as in the hearts of their survivors.