Lack of oxygen supplies killed three in Kentucky mine disaster

Amon Brock, 51, and Jimmy D. Lee, 33—the two other miners killed in May 20 explosion at the Darby Mine No. 1—died from multiple blunt-force trauma and heat injuries caused by the blast, according to Harlan County Coroner Philip Bianchi. He said further testing would be needed to determine how long the three others—Roy Middleton, 35, Paris Thomas Jr., 53, and George William Petra, 49—survived after the initial blast before succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Family members were infuriated when they heard that their loved ones suffocated to death. “It makes me upset that he smothered to death,” Mary Middleton told the Associated Press about her husband Roy. “They need to have more oxygen for them.”

“What they told me was, when they found my husband, he had the rescuer on, and he was trying to get out,” said Tilda Thomas, whose husband Paris was killed. “I just think all miners everywhere need bigger oxygen supplies. The rescuers only have an hour supply, even if they work at all.”

Paul Ledford, the sole survivor of the explosion at the non-union Darby Mine, told his brother Jeff that his oxygen supply only lasted five minutes. “I just thank God he made it,” Jeff Ledford told ABC News. “Them other guys could have made it if you ask me, if they had the right kind of equipment.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/kent-m24.shtml