Huntington, Utah – Dale Black’s widow didn’t want his funeral to turn into a showdown with the co-owner of the mine where he died, and most went along with her request to avoid confrontation.
Frustration is high with six miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine – men Black and two others died trying to rescue – all but left for dead.
Even now, when people in this mining community criticize the officials whose businesses pay their bills, they often do it in whispers.
At Tuesday’s funeral, held in a campground in the shadow of the mountain mine, one man waited for Bob Murray, the mine’s co-owner, to accept the thanks of one woman, and then stepped forward, his hand outstretched.
While hundreds of mourners waited in line nearby to sign a guest book, Murray reached out, expecting to shake hands. But the man, who declined to be identified, handed Murray a dollar bill. He said his friend was waiting to be rescued, and he accused Murray of skimping on the rescue efforts. “This is just to help you out so you don’t kill him,” he said.
Murray’s head snapped back, as if slapped. When the man wouldn’t take back the bill, Murray threw the money on the ground. “I’ll tell you what, son, you need to find out about the Lord,” he said.
As Murray walked away from the scene, his son picked up the dollar.
“We’ll give it to the church,” Ryan Murray said.
It was an emotional exchange with the man who has insisted that the rescue of the miners and the well-being of their families has been his priority since the Aug. 6 collapse. Now some families and friends are wondering whether it was safe for miners to have been working there in the first place.
Critics are now openly saying the mine was a disaster waiting to happen and pointing fingers at Murray Energy Corp. and the federal government as the agents of the tragedy.
Miners’ advocates have accused the Mine Safety and Health Administration in recent years of being too accommodating to the industry at the expense of safety.
“No one took the time to see that it was a recipe for disaster,” Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, said Tuesday.
In question is the decision to allow Crandall Canyon’s operators to mine between two sections that had already been excavated using a mining technique that causes the roof to collapse.
In that middle section, the mine was cut leaving pillars of coal holding up the mountain above. MSHA approved a plan allowing the operators to pull out the pillars, a practice called “retreat mining,” which causes deliberate, controlled cave-ins.
Experts think any investigation will focus on why MSHA agreed to that plan.
Retreat-mining conditions are so unstable, some companies will leave behind the last of the coal rather than risk lives trying to pull additional pillars, experts have said.
Steve Allred, the brother of trapped miner Kerry Allred, said he has received a tidal wave of calls from people who have said the mine conditions were unsafe.
He said his brother also had expressed some concern.
“There is concern no matter which mine you are in,” he said, but miners have to shut out those thoughts in order to work underground.
