In a report provided to ILN on Friday, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration said the event was occurring as inspectors arrived for a regular E01 inspection at the Alpha Natural Resources mine on May 18 and management was attempting to locate the source of the smoke encountered in the operations outby aircourses in the No. 2 working section.

“Once it was verified … and the source could not be located, a verbal 107a order was issued to the operator requiring all miners working underground to immediately evacuate to the surface and be accounted for,” the report said.

It said the imminent danger order the company reported last week followed that verbal evacuation.

Among the dozen citations and orders, including significant and substantial, Road Fork received a 104(d)(2) for failing to maintain the operating condition of the carbon monoxide monitoring system.

“The operator has engaged in unwarrantable failure to comply with a mandatory health and safety standard constituting more than ordinary negligence,” officials said of the system, which would not communicate with the surface.

“This condition is obvious and should have been corrected.”

Also, a 104(d)(2) order was issued to the Alpha mine for failing to conduct an adequate examination of the 2D belt drive.

“During an inspection after the belt had burnt into at the drive rollers, it was discovered the slippage switch was not installed properly,” MSHA said, adding it was again an “obvious” condition that should have been corrected during an examination.

The agency’s inspectors also discovered accumulations of combustible material underneath the 2D head/take-up drive in depth of up to 18 inches, for which it issued a 104(a) citation.

Accumulations in other locations resulted in additional 104(a)s.

The incident prompted MSHA to undertake a one-day inspection blitz at 43 former Massey Energy operations last week in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

Virginia-based Alpha bought Massey’s operations last year for $7.1 billion.

While Alpha did not respond to questions about the event posed by ILN on Friday, spokesperson Ted Pile last week told several media outlets the Road Fork workers handled the event properly and the condition was not life-threatening.

MSHA coal administrator Kevin Stricklin told West Virginia MetroNews the inspectors’ arrival at the Wyoming County mine as the fire was starting was “lucky” timing.

“If this was on an off-shift and we weren't there, I'm not sure what would have happened at Road Fork,” he said.

“You would have hoped they would have removed the people from the [mine’s] inby for sure.

“And then investigate to find out what the cause of the smoke was and then do a testing of their system to find out what went wrong.”

Stricklin also told the news service the 2006 Aracoma mine fire in Logan County where two miners were killed in a belt fire was on his mind when he was informed of the Road Fork 51 incident.

“It could have turned into another Aracoma if the conditions were as bad as they were at Aracoma,” he said.

Blitz results in more trouble

The incident spurred a 43-mine inspection blitz at other Alpha operations in three states just one day later.

Agency spokesperson Amy Louviere did not detail the specifics of the violations found during the blitz but did provide ILN with a list of the mines cited. They include:

• Big Laurel mine no. 2
• Rockhouse Energy mine no. 1
• Sidney Coal Taylor Fork
• Process Energy no. 1
• M3 Energy no. 1
• Martin County Coal White Cabin no. 9
• Stillhouse Mining no. 1
• North Fork no. 4
• North Fork no. 5
• Cloverlick no. 3
• Aracoma Alma no. 1
• Aracoma Hernshaw
• Spartan Mining Ruby Energy
• Spartan Mining Hatfield Energy
• Aracoma Coal Cedar Grove No. 1

MSHA confirmed a total of 226 issuances were made, 221 of which were citations and four of which were orders.

One safeguard was issued to the Cloverlick no. 3 operation.

Collectively, the group’s S&S rate was 28% as 63 of the 225 total citations and orders were classified significant and substantial.