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Vol. 71/Supplement      August 2007

 
Eyewitness report from 1984 Utah mine disaster
 
The last major mine disaster in Emery County, Utah, was a fire at the Wilberg mine outside of Orangeville. Below we reprint an excerpt from the Jan. 11, 1985, Militant, providing an eyewitness account of this event. The authors of the articles were both coal miners who participated in the union rescue and relief efforts. Cecelia Moriarity worked at the Wilberg mine where the fire occurred.

BY JOE GEISER
AND CECELIA MORIARITY  
PRICE, Utah—Nineteen members of UMWA Local 2176, and eight company executives and foremen, were killed by a fire that started Dec. 19, 1984, at the Wilberg mine outside Orangeville, Utah. The mine is located in the main coal-producing region in the southeastern part of the state.

The bodies of the 26 men and one woman remain inside the mine despite attempts to rescue them. On December 23 rescue teams were evacuated from the mine on the order of federal mine inspectors as explosive gases reached a dangerous level. On December 29 the mine portals were sealed in an effort to bring under control the fire that has raged since December 19.

The dead miners were all working in a section of the mine where a longwall, the most modern and mechanized machine for producing coal, was in use. The company was attempting to achieve a 24-hour world production record at the time of the fire.

Emery Mining has tried to cover up its responsibility for the disaster, claiming the fire probably started as a result of a mechanical failure on the conveyor-belt system that brings coal out of the mine.

However, at a press conference December 28 at UMWA Local 2176 headquarters in Orangeville, eyewitness testimony was presented by two union members who discovered the fire. Their story contradicts the company version.

Speaking at the press conference were UMWA members Alex Tidwell and Clinton Price. They are beltmen, whose job is to maintain the conveyor belt and keep the area clean of coal dust accumulation that could lead to a fire.

According to Tidwell and Price, the fire broke out near an electrical cable in the fresh-air tunnel leading to the longwall section, not on the conveyor belt.

The two men said the phone nearest the fire was not working so they were unable to immediately call for help. As the fire spread to the conveyor belt motor, an automatic foam system that should have been activated to put out the fire failed to work. “It just bubbled,” they said.

Earlier last fall, Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors had found caved-in coal and rock blocking an escape route. Instead of ordering Emery to clean up the cave-in, MSHA issued the company a variance, which is a permit to keep operating despite a safety violation. Because the cave-in was never removed, there were only two—instead of the normal three—exits available to miners in the area. The fire broke out on one escape route and quickly burned through to a second exit, blocking both. The third escapeway was blocked by the cave-in. The miners on the longwall were thus trapped.  
 
 
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