The lone survivor of the 1984 Wilberg Mine disaster said Thursday that he received proper training in use of emergency oxygen equipment, despite assertions Monday that miners lacked sufficient training.
Under cross-examination however, he said mine officials had not notified workers that a possible escape route from the mine had been blocked by a cave-in.Kenneth Blake, described this week as the "luckiest man to be alive," made the statements Thursday in an $86 million civil lawsuit trial that could put to rest just how the fire started and who was at fault.
UP&L brought the lawsuit in 1987 in hopes of being compensated for the $22 million it paid in an out-of-court settlement to widows and children of 27 miners who perished in the Dec. 19, 1984, mine fire. The company also hopes to win another $64 million to reimburse insurance companies that covered UP&L losses as a result of the fire.
UP&L is blaming the fire on Ingersoll-Rand of New Jersey, which manufactured an air compressor a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration report concludes started the fire. Attorneys for Ingersoll-Rand, however, say the blaze resulted from shoddy practices by Emery Mining Corp., hired by UP&L to run the mine.
Blake, a mine maintenance foreman, recounted Thursday how he managed to escape the mine fire despite tremendous odds against him. After being called back in the evening to work a second shift and conduct maintenance on coal-extraction equipment deep in the mine, he said, "Things seemed to be running OK" at about 8:45 p.m.
But within a few minutes, while trying to determine why a coal conveyor belt stopped, Blake said he noticed smoke. A few minutes later, he and the workers with him received a call telling them to get out of the mine because a fire had broken out.
In an effort to find breathing equipment known as self-contained self-rescuers, Blake said he encountered thick smoke.
"It came in pretty quick," he said. "As soon as it was there, it was thick."
Blake said he was unable to find the self-rescuers, but that two fellow workers he encountered coming through the smoke handed him one of three rescuers they were carrying.
Under cross-examination from Ingersoll-Rand attorney John Ashton, Blake asserted that he had received proper training in use of the rescuers and that he had donned them previously in training. In opening arguments Monday, attorneys said some miners had not been properly trained to use the devices.
Blake said he encountered several miners while trying to make his way out of the mine. He said fire and heat prevented miners from using normal escape routes along the belt line, through which coal travels on its way out of the mine, or through the "intake," a corridor that typically carries fresh air to miners but which was blocked by fire.
"I told them (miners) we should do something now," Blake said. "There wasn't time to stand around and argue about it. At that point, I couldn't see anything."
Blake said some of the men discussed exiting the mine through the "return," a corridor that carries air out of the mine. He said he hadn't been told by mine officials that a cave-in a few months earlier had made the return impassable.
Attorneys argued Monday that miners should have been notified that the return was blocked. The body of one miner, who apparently was looking for an escape route, was found in the return.
Blake said he attempted to follow veteran miner Tom Hirsch.
"He told me to call my insurance company," Blake recalled. But after a few minutes, "I lost Tom in the smoke. I didn't know where he was."
Blake said he became disoriented as he felt his way through a part of the mine he didn't know. He continued looking for a "mandoor" through which he could escape the smoky corridor, and after finding a door that wasn't hot on the other side, he climbed through and continued walking.
"I could hear the fire, so I turned around and headed the other direction," Blake said. "It (the fire) was roaring. At that time I didn't know where I was.' Blake found some men fighting the fire, and they directed him out of the mine. When he asked them about other trapped miners, Blake said, they told him he was the only one they had seen.