This story originally appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail on April 5, 2011.
MONTCOAL — The Upper Big Branch mine entrance looks much diff erent than it did one year ago. There are no ambulances here now, no fire trucks or state troopers. No one’s stopping traffic. Passing drivers no longer turn their heads to look up the mountain in an effort to spot the mine where four miners remained trapped.
Now, 29 miners’ hard hats rest on 29 crosses. Each fallen miner’s name is written on the bill. A black wreath hangs above the memorial. To the right, a large sign reads, “We will never forget our UBB Brothers.”
A year ago today, an explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine near Whitesville claimed the lives of 29 coal miners. Initial reports showed 25 men died in the blast. The world waited until Friday,April 9 to learn that the remaining four miners weren’t able to reach a rescue shelter. Mourners have set up a makeshift memorial near Whitesville Elementary. Fallen miners’ family members have filled a simple gazebo with posters and cards.
There are flower arrangements, a rosary and 29 pieces of coal , each bearing a miner’s name in white paint. One says “I love you papaw Rickey, from Hailey.”
Ricky Workman loved Harley Davidson motorcycles, racing go-carts and hisgrandchildren, according to his obituary.At nearby Marsh Fork Elementary, Principal Shannon Pioch has the beginnings of the school’s own memorial tucked away in a plastic bin.
Her school became the media staging area, where national and local news outlets waited for press conferences with then-Gov. Joe Manchin and Kevin Strickland, the federal Mine Safety and Health Agency administrator.
Pioch was on medical leave at the time but got a call at home saying her school would become reporters’ home away from home during the disaster. She phoned members of her staff to help out.
“I knew we had to get something in order. My staff, they took their own time. They were on Spring Break. We all just pulled together,” she said.
Journalists from across the nation used the school’s high speed Internet, phone lines and restrooms.The Los Angeles Times worked out ofthe school’s special education classroom, and the Wall Street Journal commandeered the technology room. CNN took a third-grade classroom and ABC News set up shop in anotherclassroom, putting a handwritten note on the door that said “ABC News workspace.”
School staff and community members brought in food for members of the media. The Greenbrier sign says, “I love you papaw Ricky, from Hailey.”
Ricky Workman loved Harley Davidson motorcycles, racing go-carts and his grandchildren, according to his obituary.
At nearby Marsh Fork Elementary, Principal Shannon Pioch has the beginnings of the school’s own sent sandwiches.As some reporters were leaving, they tried to pay the school for its trouble, Pioch said. To the out-of-towners’ surprise, she politely refused the offers.
“I remember, they didn’t believe it,” she said.
The journalists did leave something behind for the school: business cards, headshots, a photo of CBS Evening News anchor Diane Sawyer in the Title I classroom and a large, signed banner.
Pioch also kept sympathy cards sent to the school from other elementary students around the state and country. Spring Hill Elementary in Huntington sent a 10-foot paper banner, signed by students. It’s decorated with a construction paper miner’s hard hat and a coal buggy. Large letters read “Let Love Light the Way.”
“These are things you don’t want to get rid of,” she said, packing the items back in their plastic container.
Pioch said she’s now looking for some way to display all the memorabilia permanently.
Sisters Elizabeth Casto, 84, and Pauleen Canterberry, 81, said the disaster “devastated the whole community.” Their father was a coal miner, they married coal miners and their children and grandchildren also work in the mines. Both have lost husbands to black lung disease.
“It’s a terrible disease,” Casto said.
“Our father was a safety inspector. He never would have let that happen,” Canterberry said.
“If this mine would have been union, they wouldn’t have had to work. They could have come out,” Casto said. “We do not like (former Massey CEO Don) Blankenship,” she said.
Alvin Brown, 60, of Wharton, is a longtime coal miner underground.
“It’s hard to believe,” he said of the Upper Big Branch Disaster. “I’ve worked in amine that’s like that – a gassy mine. It’s a sad accident. It’s a tragedy.”
Brown said he couldn’t blame anyone for the mine disaster because he never worked at Upper Big Branch and didn’t know the conditions there. He said coal mining is inherently risky, though.
“You’ve got to take risks,” he said. “It’s just what you’ve got to do.”
Although he now works behind a desk at Massey’s Horse Creek Eagle mine, he spent 15 years underground.
“It’s hard to believe,” he said of the Upper Big Branch Disaster. “I’ve worked in a mine that’s like that – a gassy mine. It’s a sad accident. It’s a tragedy.”
Brown said he couldn’t blame anyone for the mine disaster because he never worked at Upper Big Branch and didn’t know the conditions there. He said coal mining is inherently risky, though.
“You’ve got to take risks,” he said. “It’s just what you’ve got to do.”