Remembering the seven: June 21 marks 38th anniversary of deadly McClure mine explosion in SW Virginia
Monday marks the 38th anniversary of one of the deadliest coal mining disasters in Virginia’s history.
A massive explosion rocked Clinchfield Coal’s McClure No. 1 mine in Dickenson County killing seven people including 51-year-old Mary K. Counts, the first female coal miner in Virginia to lose her life while working underground.
The Virginia Division of Mines and Quarries wrote in its investigation report that Clinchfield failed to install proper ventilation that would have carried lethal methane out. Instead, the gas was ignited by an electrical arc in a crossway.
State safety records showed the McClure mine was cited more than 160 times for violations in the nine months leading up to the fatal blast.
The other victims were identified as Covey Fresh, 45, Earnest Avery Hall, 30, Luther Julian McCoy, 37, Eugene Meade, 26, Forest Carter Riner, Jr., 58, Dale Stamper, Jr., 56. Three other miners, Harold Boyd, Emmery Howard, and Miles Sutherland, were injured.
(IMAGE: Mary K. Counts, 51, of Nora, Virginia, was one of the seven miners killed in 1983 on the evening of June 21 when an explosion erupted inside the Clinchfield Coal McClure No. 1 mine in Dickenson County, Virginia. Several state and federal organizations have cited that Counts was the first woman coal miner in Virginia to be killed while working underground. / Photo Courtesy of B. Rasnick / Counts Family)
