M
MrVersatile48
Guest
Yahoo news want this networked:-
(I'd normally have put it in current events, but 4 months of inactivity over emergency safety equipment/training shows blind eyes are being turned, yes?
So let's do some general talk to revive the issue & learn lessons of even greater use in changing lost folks' eternal destinies, OK?)
Condition of Miners' Air Packs Disputed By VICKI SMITH,
12 minutes ago
BUCKHANNON, W.Va. - Federal regulators are scrambling to reassure the nation's 42,000 coal miners that the air packs they rely on in an emergency will work, even though the sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster says four of his crew's devices malfunctioned.
Congressmen and some of the Sago victims' relatives, meanwhile, are calling on government to upgrade air packs and require the use of tracking devices and communication systems to make sure West Virginia's heartache is never repeated.
"We know we need the coal," said Wanda Groves, mother of fallen miner Jerry Groves. "We're going to have to have mines. But we want them to be safe."
The revelation about malfunctioning air packs came from Sago survivor Randal McCloy Jr. in a letter delivered to his co-workers' families and obtained by The Associated Press.
The air packs  referred to in the letter as "rescuers"  are intended to give each miner about an hour's worth of oxygen while they escape or find a pocket of clean air. McCloy said at least four of the devices did not function, forcing the trapped men to share as they awaited a rescue that came too late.
"His heart-wrenching account of the last hours of his co-workers' lives should spur this Congress to act on our legislation," said Rep. Nick Rahall (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va.
Rep. George Miller (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., noted that Congress needed only 40 days to pass a bill after Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl.
"It's been almost 4 months since the Sago mine disaster and there has been no action," he said.
Mine owner International Coal Group Inc. said federal investigators tested the miners' air packs  also known as self-contained self-rescue devices, or SCSRs  and found no evidence any of them malfunctioned.
Dirk Fillpot, spokesman with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, confirmed that the agency and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health examined all the air packs recovered from the mine. Initial tests found that the devices that had been activated would have functioned properly, he said.
However, MSHA will look into whether the Sago miners had been adequately trained to use them, he said.
The Jan. 2 blast killed one miner, then spread carbon monoxide that slowly asphyxiated 11 other men 260 feet below ground.
McCloy said the miners' first action was to don their air packs. He shared his with Groves, while his co-workers shared theirs with others.
The miners returned to their rail car in hopes of escaping along the track, but had to abandon the effort because of bad air. They then retreated, hung a curtain to keep out the poisonous gases and tried to signal their location by beating on roof bolts and plates.
"We found a sledgehammer, and for a long time, we took turns pounding away," McCloy wrote. "We never heard a responsive blast or shot from the surface."
Martin "Junior" Toler, 51, and Tom Anderson, 39, tried to find a way out but were turned back by heavy smoke and fumes, McCloy said.
"We were worried and afraid, but we began to accept our fate," he wrote. "Junior Toler led us all in the Sinners Prayer"  a prayer for salvation of one's soul.
"Some drifted off into what appeared to be a deep sleep, and one person sitting near me collapsed and fell off his bucket, not moving. It was clear that there was nothing I could do to help him," McCloy wrote.
Groves' family members said Thursday they were grateful to McCloy, both for revealing details of Groves' final hours and for sharing his air pack.
"If they'd both had one that would work, they might have lasted a little longer," Wanda Groves said.
Jane Peak, an attorney who represents nine of the miners' families, asked the media to respect their privacy.
"This is a very difficult time for the families and they do not wish to comment" before state hearings next week that are part of the investigation into the tragedy, Peak said.
Doctors have been unable to pinpoint why McCloy, 27, was the only who survived the 41 hours it took rescuers to find the crew. He left the mine battered and comatose and spent months in the hospital. He suffered brain damage that affects his ability to hold a conversation.
"I cannot begin to express my sorrow for my lost friends and my sympathy for those they left behind," he wrote. "I hope that my words will offer some solace to the miners' families and friends who have endured what no one should ever have to endure."
McCloy's letter also said that three weeks before the blast, he and Toler found a pocket of methane gas. After reporting it to supervisors, they discovered it had been plugged with glue normally used to secure roof bolts and layers of rock.
The Sago miners were using air packs manufactured by CSE Corp., according to investigators. The packs use a chemical reaction to produce oxygen. The company said the units require no maintenance beyond periodic visual inspections.
The SCSR contains a small window with a blue dot; if the blue dot isn't present, then the SCSR is presumed to be ineffective and is discarded.
CSE said it will look into the use of the air packs at the Sago Mine. The company added that miners are required to examine the devices before they enter a mine.
International Coal Group said the SCSRs worn by the Sago miners "were all within the manufacturer suggested life," the devices are checked every 90 days by a person at the mine and are checked by the wearer every day.
At least two miners who escaped the blast said they struggled with their air packs. Arnett Roger Perry told investigators he could not initially activate his.
"They're not worth a damn," Harley Joe Ryan said. "There's going to have to be some design changes for them."
Though state and federal investigators have reached no official conclusions about the cause of the explosion, ICG officials say they believe it was caused by a lightning bolt that ignited a build-up of naturally occurring methane.
The Bush administration is reviewing air packs and other safety equipment used in the nation's mines after previously scrapping similar initiatives started by the Clinton administration.
Groves' relatives want the government to adopt more flexible rules for mine rescues. Teams were not allowed to enter Sago until 11 hours after the blast because inspectors would not declare it safe.
"If we have to get on a bus to Washington, D.C., to make sure these changes are made," said his brother John Grove, "then that's what we need to do."
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To ensure effective action happens fast, do google asthma & bronchitis medical advice
I've shared 2/3 times in the past few days @ the FX of coal/metal/flour dust
blowing from Bootle Docks, @ 200 yards from where I live
Urgency here makes it worth repeating that, in my 1st 10 weeks since moving to Bootle, mid-November, there were often nights when I'd wake 4/6 times, coughing, wheezing & choking, forced to use the Ventolin inhaler that should only be used 4 times in 24 hours
But when you cough so hard you feel like your heart will burst & you might either have a fatal heart attack or choke to death in agonising wheezes, you take the O/D
As a seasoned street preacher, it is extra agony right now to know that May Bank Holiday weekend approaches, yet I have to wait till next Thursday for a medical examination
Unless things get so bad that Ihave to go in hospital for emergency 24 hours on nebuliser again
It's kinda like folk talking @ the agony of Christ on the cross, saying, truthfully, that the worst agony of it all was that spiritual separation from God the Father as the penalty for all the sin of the world fell on the sacrificial Lamb of God
My physical pain right now - or over the worst of the past 6 months - is not as bad as crucifixion
But folk have suicided rather than bear less than this
& God knows how I've cried out to Him, these past few days of knowing that my voice is now useless, asking Him to raise up other open-air evangelists: quite intensely over the past few hours
As I got off the bus, by Liverpool Empire Theatre, for the 2/3 minutes walk to Central Library here, the chorus of an old Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) song echoed round my head as a prayer for students & others, who may have started their extended weekend this lunchtime, to be mobilised into mission - visualising teams of them in beauty spots & precincts, in faith, as a way of expressing, "Whatever you [pray in my name, believe that you have received it & you shall have it"
So...
altogether now...
1/2/3....
"All the young dudes
carry the news!
Boo-ga-loo dudes
carry the news!"
Earlier, I was praying in what I shared in early January here
It was a vision of folk being inspired to make their own gospel window posters, to use their windows to let out spiritual light into the gross darkness of the world - specifically youths' upstairs bedroom windows, as they can be seen over the hedges & walls
Now it's time to add T shirts to the picture
2/3 summers ago, I got packs of 2 plain T shirts for £2 from Asda & discount packs of coloured felt-tipped pens from Partners & Poundstretcher (& A3-size artists' pads for the posters)
Do letters at least as big & thick as licence plate numbers, so you know they are readable from a fair range - I've often used a different colour for each letter, so they look spectacular in the sun - my windows face south, for maximum sunlight
The posters can be greatly used if held by major T junctions to catch drivers when they stop at red lights
Let's breathe the fresh air of the gospel into our choking communities
Must go
God bless!
Ian
(I'd normally have put it in current events, but 4 months of inactivity over emergency safety equipment/training shows blind eyes are being turned, yes?
So let's do some general talk to revive the issue & learn lessons of even greater use in changing lost folks' eternal destinies, OK?)
Condition of Miners' Air Packs Disputed By VICKI SMITH,
12 minutes ago
BUCKHANNON, W.Va. - Federal regulators are scrambling to reassure the nation's 42,000 coal miners that the air packs they rely on in an emergency will work, even though the sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster says four of his crew's devices malfunctioned.
Congressmen and some of the Sago victims' relatives, meanwhile, are calling on government to upgrade air packs and require the use of tracking devices and communication systems to make sure West Virginia's heartache is never repeated.
"We know we need the coal," said Wanda Groves, mother of fallen miner Jerry Groves. "We're going to have to have mines. But we want them to be safe."
The revelation about malfunctioning air packs came from Sago survivor Randal McCloy Jr. in a letter delivered to his co-workers' families and obtained by The Associated Press.
The air packs  referred to in the letter as "rescuers"  are intended to give each miner about an hour's worth of oxygen while they escape or find a pocket of clean air. McCloy said at least four of the devices did not function, forcing the trapped men to share as they awaited a rescue that came too late.
"His heart-wrenching account of the last hours of his co-workers' lives should spur this Congress to act on our legislation," said Rep. Nick Rahall (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va.
Rep. George Miller (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., noted that Congress needed only 40 days to pass a bill after Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl.
"It's been almost 4 months since the Sago mine disaster and there has been no action," he said.
Mine owner International Coal Group Inc. said federal investigators tested the miners' air packs  also known as self-contained self-rescue devices, or SCSRs  and found no evidence any of them malfunctioned.
Dirk Fillpot, spokesman with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, confirmed that the agency and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health examined all the air packs recovered from the mine. Initial tests found that the devices that had been activated would have functioned properly, he said.
However, MSHA will look into whether the Sago miners had been adequately trained to use them, he said.
The Jan. 2 blast killed one miner, then spread carbon monoxide that slowly asphyxiated 11 other men 260 feet below ground.
McCloy said the miners' first action was to don their air packs. He shared his with Groves, while his co-workers shared theirs with others.
The miners returned to their rail car in hopes of escaping along the track, but had to abandon the effort because of bad air. They then retreated, hung a curtain to keep out the poisonous gases and tried to signal their location by beating on roof bolts and plates.
"We found a sledgehammer, and for a long time, we took turns pounding away," McCloy wrote. "We never heard a responsive blast or shot from the surface."
Martin "Junior" Toler, 51, and Tom Anderson, 39, tried to find a way out but were turned back by heavy smoke and fumes, McCloy said.
"We were worried and afraid, but we began to accept our fate," he wrote. "Junior Toler led us all in the Sinners Prayer"  a prayer for salvation of one's soul.
"Some drifted off into what appeared to be a deep sleep, and one person sitting near me collapsed and fell off his bucket, not moving. It was clear that there was nothing I could do to help him," McCloy wrote.
Groves' family members said Thursday they were grateful to McCloy, both for revealing details of Groves' final hours and for sharing his air pack.
"If they'd both had one that would work, they might have lasted a little longer," Wanda Groves said.
Jane Peak, an attorney who represents nine of the miners' families, asked the media to respect their privacy.
"This is a very difficult time for the families and they do not wish to comment" before state hearings next week that are part of the investigation into the tragedy, Peak said.
Doctors have been unable to pinpoint why McCloy, 27, was the only who survived the 41 hours it took rescuers to find the crew. He left the mine battered and comatose and spent months in the hospital. He suffered brain damage that affects his ability to hold a conversation.
"I cannot begin to express my sorrow for my lost friends and my sympathy for those they left behind," he wrote. "I hope that my words will offer some solace to the miners' families and friends who have endured what no one should ever have to endure."
McCloy's letter also said that three weeks before the blast, he and Toler found a pocket of methane gas. After reporting it to supervisors, they discovered it had been plugged with glue normally used to secure roof bolts and layers of rock.
The Sago miners were using air packs manufactured by CSE Corp., according to investigators. The packs use a chemical reaction to produce oxygen. The company said the units require no maintenance beyond periodic visual inspections.
The SCSR contains a small window with a blue dot; if the blue dot isn't present, then the SCSR is presumed to be ineffective and is discarded.
CSE said it will look into the use of the air packs at the Sago Mine. The company added that miners are required to examine the devices before they enter a mine.
International Coal Group said the SCSRs worn by the Sago miners "were all within the manufacturer suggested life," the devices are checked every 90 days by a person at the mine and are checked by the wearer every day.
At least two miners who escaped the blast said they struggled with their air packs. Arnett Roger Perry told investigators he could not initially activate his.
"They're not worth a damn," Harley Joe Ryan said. "There's going to have to be some design changes for them."
Though state and federal investigators have reached no official conclusions about the cause of the explosion, ICG officials say they believe it was caused by a lightning bolt that ignited a build-up of naturally occurring methane.
The Bush administration is reviewing air packs and other safety equipment used in the nation's mines after previously scrapping similar initiatives started by the Clinton administration.
Groves' relatives want the government to adopt more flexible rules for mine rescues. Teams were not allowed to enter Sago until 11 hours after the blast because inspectors would not declare it safe.
"If we have to get on a bus to Washington, D.C., to make sure these changes are made," said his brother John Grove, "then that's what we need to do."
Email Story IM Story Discuss Printable View
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To ensure effective action happens fast, do google asthma & bronchitis medical advice
I've shared 2/3 times in the past few days @ the FX of coal/metal/flour dust
blowing from Bootle Docks, @ 200 yards from where I live
Urgency here makes it worth repeating that, in my 1st 10 weeks since moving to Bootle, mid-November, there were often nights when I'd wake 4/6 times, coughing, wheezing & choking, forced to use the Ventolin inhaler that should only be used 4 times in 24 hours
But when you cough so hard you feel like your heart will burst & you might either have a fatal heart attack or choke to death in agonising wheezes, you take the O/D
As a seasoned street preacher, it is extra agony right now to know that May Bank Holiday weekend approaches, yet I have to wait till next Thursday for a medical examination
Unless things get so bad that Ihave to go in hospital for emergency 24 hours on nebuliser again
It's kinda like folk talking @ the agony of Christ on the cross, saying, truthfully, that the worst agony of it all was that spiritual separation from God the Father as the penalty for all the sin of the world fell on the sacrificial Lamb of God
My physical pain right now - or over the worst of the past 6 months - is not as bad as crucifixion
But folk have suicided rather than bear less than this
& God knows how I've cried out to Him, these past few days of knowing that my voice is now useless, asking Him to raise up other open-air evangelists: quite intensely over the past few hours
As I got off the bus, by Liverpool Empire Theatre, for the 2/3 minutes walk to Central Library here, the chorus of an old Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) song echoed round my head as a prayer for students & others, who may have started their extended weekend this lunchtime, to be mobilised into mission - visualising teams of them in beauty spots & precincts, in faith, as a way of expressing, "Whatever you [pray in my name, believe that you have received it & you shall have it"
So...
altogether now...
1/2/3....
"All the young dudes
carry the news!
Boo-ga-loo dudes
carry the news!"
Earlier, I was praying in what I shared in early January here
It was a vision of folk being inspired to make their own gospel window posters, to use their windows to let out spiritual light into the gross darkness of the world - specifically youths' upstairs bedroom windows, as they can be seen over the hedges & walls
Now it's time to add T shirts to the picture
2/3 summers ago, I got packs of 2 plain T shirts for £2 from Asda & discount packs of coloured felt-tipped pens from Partners & Poundstretcher (& A3-size artists' pads for the posters)
Do letters at least as big & thick as licence plate numbers, so you know they are readable from a fair range - I've often used a different colour for each letter, so they look spectacular in the sun - my windows face south, for maximum sunlight
The posters can be greatly used if held by major T junctions to catch drivers when they stop at red lights
Let's breathe the fresh air of the gospel into our choking communities
Must go
God bless!
Ian