Beckley, WV (WOAY) – Families and community leaders gathered in Beckley on Monday to mark the 16th anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, the deadliest coal mining disaster in the United States in forty years.
On April 5, 2010, the day after Easter, an explosion tore through the Upper Big Branch Mine near Montcoal in Raleigh County, roughly a thousand feet underground. Twenty-nine men were killed.
Monday’s remembrance ceremony included the reading of each miner’s name aloud, followed by the tolling of a bell.
Mick Bates, the ceremony’s organizer, said the annual event exists to ensure the men are not forgotten.
“29 is a big number. So when you take 29 people and you erase them from the planet they were someone’s husband, father … there wasn’t anybody in this community that wasn’t impacted in some way by what happened. Everybody knew somebody directly or indirectly,” Bates said. “By doing this, we honor those men. We make sure their legacy is not forgotten, and help them and their families recall both the very difficult times, but also the good times where the community came together to support them during their need.”
Bates has organized the ceremony every year since the disaster. Mining deaths in West Virginia remain a reality, averaging roughly ten per year statewide. A miner was killed at Panther Eagle Mine in Raleigh County just last week.
Bates said the dangers of the profession have not disappeared.
“It’s safer than it has ever been, but there is no safe way to mine coal, particularly underground. These men are in harm’s way. And when it goes bad, it goes bad in a big way,” he said.
Among those attending Monday’s ceremony was Jeanie Sanger, whose brother Benny Willingham was killed in the disaster, along with her husband Bobby.
Bobby Sanger reflected on the character of the men lost and of the mining community as a whole.
“I worked in the industry for my whole working career, and it’s a unique bunch. The camaraderie … Benny, specifically, because he was such a good man,” said Bobby Sanger, brother-in-law of victim Benny Willingham.
Jeanie Sanger offered a final word about her brother.
“He was a godly man. Yes. And I’m thankful that he’s in heaven. And I’ll see him again,” said Jeanie Sanger, sister of victim Benny Willingham.
