Details From AP
Mine Fire History
Mine Safety Health Administration
RAG Coal International
August 1, 2000
A preliminary report gives more details about a deadly explosion and fire inside a coal mine 12 miles northeast of Price.
It happened around midnight at the Willow Creek Mine.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration told KSL NewsRadio that naturally occuring methane gas probably caught fire inside the mine. The shift foreman was trying to put out the flames with a portable fire extinguisher, when the roof of an already-mined area collapsed, likely sending methane gas onto what's called the longwall.
The longwall is a 500 foot peice of cutting equipment used to actually mine the coal. Apparently when the gas hit the longwall, something ignited it and caused an explosion. Two miners who were working on the longwall at the time were killed, eight others were seriously injured.
Killed in the fire were Cory Nielson, age 28, and Shane Stansfield, age 29, both from Carbon County. Stansfield lived in Wellington and was married. He had been working at this mine for 24 weeks. He had a total of more than four years experience as a miner, according to the MSHA.
Nielson had been married for four years and had two children, said his father, Gordon Nielson. He was raised in Elmo and moved to West Elk, Colo., where he worked at a mine until it caught on fire. He had been working at the Willow Creek mine for five months.
The injured were taken to Castleview Hospital in Price. Two of them were then flown to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Those two are Tyson K. Hales, who was in critical condition with a head injury and burns; and Kyle Medley, who was in serious condition with multiple fractures and burns to his face and hands.
A total of 100 miners were inside when the incident occured. The majority of them were in a different part of the mine and got out safely.
The mine shaft was sealed because air monitors indicated the fire may still be burning. Sealing the shaft could allow the fire to extinguish itself.
