Funerals begin for 5 killed in Kentucky mine explosion

HARLAN, Ky. -- The lone survivor of a coal mine explosion that killed five fellow workers attended funerals for three of them Wednesday and heard from one widow that she was glad he made it out.

Paul Ledford wept quietly with his head bowed in the front row as mourners paid their respects to Jimmy D. Lee, among the miners killed Saturday at Kentucky Darby Mine No. 1 in Harlan County. It was the deadliest single mining incident in the state since 1989, when 10 miners died in a western Kentucky explosion.

"Paul, he loved you and I love you, and I'm glad you were spared," Melissa Lee said at her husband's funeral.

Ledford declined comment to reporters after the funeral.

He later attended funerals for two other colleagues, Paris Thomas Jr., 35, and George Petra, 49. Funerals for Amon Brock, 51, and Roy Middleton, 35, will be Thursday.

Also Wednesday, a federal agency said the Darby No. 1 mine was given 11 citations in a three-day span just days before the blast. Some of the citations were deemed reasonably likely to lead to injury.

At Petra's funeral at Kenvir Church of God Mountain Assembly, the Rev. Jerry Reynolds asked the standing-room-only crowd to pray for the safety of all miners.

"My hat's off to every coal miner here today," he said. "God bless you."

Lee's funeral was led by his cousin, the Rev. Roland Lee, who told the crowd, "This is the most difficult funeral I've ever done because he's a relative. There's a little bitterness."

He comforted mourners by saying Jimmy Lee was deeply religious and that "he's finished his race here, but he just started living."

The Rev. Sonny Dean, who spoke at Thomas' funeral at an Evarts chapel, said the miner was his longtime friend.

"The strangers in the world who didn't know this friend, they missed a lot because this is a good man," Dean said.

Dean said the communities in this mountainous county are "real tight. If we lose one, it saddens all of us."

At Petra's funeral, the Rev. Franklin Stewart read a poem the miner had written recently titled "Almost Anything Will Do" about his Christian faith. Stewart said he knew he should be happy that Petra had a strong faith and believed in heaven but added, "I'm just killed."

Melissa Lee told mourners at her husband's funeral that she met Jimmy Lee in July 1997 when he entered the hospital where she worked, looking for a doctor.

"I was driving to work at the hospital, and I asked God to send me someone," she said. "I was lonely, I was sad and I needed someone for my heart."

She said that Jimmy Lee was the "dirtiest coal miner I had ever seen in my life. ... When he left that morning, I told my mother I met the man I wanted to marry."

The pastor, in closing the service, asked mourners to share their personal moments with Jimmy Lee.

"Jimmy was my best friend in the whole world. His first words were always, 'What are you doing, how are you,"' Dewayne Williams said. "It's been three years since I last cried. I haven't stopped since Saturday."

Gov. Ernie Fletcher ordered that a state flag fly at half-staff over the state Capitol in Frankfort during the hour of each miner's funeral. Each flag will be sent to the dead miners' families.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration released records to The Associated Press on Wednesday revealing the 11 citations issued May 15 to 17 against the mine.

Among the citations were a handful considered "significant and substantial," meaning they were reasonably likely to lead to injury. One of the citations was issued for having combustible materials in sections of the mine in the form of "oil, oil-soaked fine coal and coal dust," according to the report.

There were also some minor violations, including problems with a shuttlecar and a conveyor-belt sprinkler.

Brock, one of the men killed in the blast Saturday, was listed as the section supervisor on some of the citations, according to MSHA.

Meanwhile, lingering methane and carbon monoxide gases in the mine in Harlan County had slowed the investigation, said Mark York, spokesman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Environmental and Public Protection.

"Today will be the first day that our investigators will actually start processing things inside the mine," he said.

Ledford told federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigators that he was with three of the miners when they heard and felt the explosion, according to a report Wednesday in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, which obtained details of the survivor's account.

Citing sources close to the investigation, the newspaper reported that Ledford said two other miners, Lee and Brock, were using acetylene torches to cut metal in another part of the mine. A coroner has said Brock and Lee died of blunt force and heat injuries, and that three of those killed -- Thomas, Petra and Roy Middleton, 35 -- survived the initial blast but died of carbon monoxide poisoning, according to preliminary tests.

According to the newspaper's report, Ledford told investigators that he and the three other miners boarded vehicles and traveled some distance before encountering smoke, when they donned self-contained breathing devices and continued. According to the newspaper report on Ledford's account, two of the miners fell behind when they all had to walk, and Middleton went back for them while Ledford continued ahead and was eventually found by rescuers.