TWO MINERS FOUND IN BURNING MINE

(01/21/2006)

"They can send a man to the moon but they can't make an (oxygen canister) that will last a few hours," said Jimmy Marcum, a 54-year-old retired miner from Delbarton, while others said mining companies have refused to use conveyor belts that won't burn. Rescuers on Saturday found the bodies of two coal miners who disappeared after a conveyor belt caught fire deep inside a coal mine. The bodies were found in an area of the mine where rescue teams had been battling the fire for more than 40 hours. Dead are Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery Hatfield, 47, both fathers with more than a decade of mining experience. Gov. Joe Manchin and U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller informed families of the deaths at at a nearby church. It was the second major mining accident in West Virginia in less than three weeks. The two men had been equipped with oxygen canisters that produce about an hour's worth of air.

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