The Farmington Mine Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

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"On the 20th of November, 1968, the ground shook beneath the town of Farmington in West Virginia..."
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
00:49 - Background
03:54 - The Farmington Mine Explosion
07:42 - The Aftermath
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
► "Underworld" by Myuu
SOURCES:
► "Mining in West Virginia: A Capsule History" published by the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health Safety & Training. Link: minesafety.wv.gov/historical-statistical-data/mining-in-west-virginia-a-capsule-history/
► "How A 1968 Disaster In A Coal Mine Changed The Industry" by Molly Born, published by NPR, November 2018. Link: www.npr.org/2018/11/23/670147046/how-a-1968-disaster-in-a-coal-mine-changed-the-industry
► "Farmington No 9: The West Virginia Disaster that Changed Coal Mining Forever" by Douglas Imbrogno, published by WV Public Broadcasting, November 2018. Link: wvpublic.org/farmington-no-9-the-west-virginia-disaster-that-changed-coal-mining-forever/
► "Impact still felt 53 years after Farmington No 9 mine explosion" by Lori L Riley, published by the Times West Virginian. Available via: umwa.org/news-media/news/farmington-mine-explosion
#Documentary #History #TrueStories

Опубликовано:

24 окт 2023

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Комментарии : 655

@PaleMagnolia 8 месяцев назад

When I heard people in Farmington "were witnessing one of the worst mine disasters ever to take place in West Virginia" I thought "Wait, how many horrifying mine disasters have happened in West Virginia?" After a quick Google search, the answer is "a ton"

@selticid 8 месяцев назад

WV has historically been the coal mining center of the Eastern US. Much of the rural economy today is still shaped by mines, whether they’re open or not.

@starmantheta2028 8 месяцев назад

119 documented from what I've read. Jesus Christ.

@hannahferrell7534 8 месяцев назад

Yup. Over 500 lives were lost in the Monongah and Eccles mine disasters. Not to mention Buffalo Creek, where three coal slurry dams burst, killing 125 people and destroying 550 homes. My teacher in high school lived at Buffalo Creek and survived the flood, and he was always haunted by it.

@angelachouinard4581 8 месяцев назад

@@hannahferrell7534 Buffalo Creek was terrible, avoidable and totally caused by neglect and disregard for safety.

@suekelley2109 8 месяцев назад

“WV is rich with coal” says the video. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to do much for the average WV citizen. It’s one of the poorest (and least educated states). Coal is not clean or safe but watch WV fight any effort to limit it or restrict it. And Kentucky.

@classicmicroscopy9398 8 месяцев назад

Imagine if your job hazard list included "random massive explosions".

@charliekezza 8 месяцев назад

"blacklung" (if the explosions don't get you)

@iamcondescending 8 месяцев назад

Women would never do it, but still demand they get paid as much as you to do their much safer job.

@Sasheenka 8 месяцев назад

⁠@@iamcondescendingwhat are you on about? Women want to be paid equally for the same jobs (like a male and female shop manager or teacher should be paid the same), not randomly for jobs they are not doing…

@michaelpettersson4919 8 месяцев назад

And you are NOT on a battlefield.

@GlennDavey 8 месяцев назад

@@charliekezza What does this have to do with Red Dead Redemption 2?

@seandelap8587 8 месяцев назад

It's never the fault of the company apparently

@WouldntULikeToKnow. 8 месяцев назад

It's terribly frustrating

@patrickdillon5517 8 месяцев назад

Especially in America

@ethribin4188 8 месяцев назад

Incorrect. In this case it wasnt. Because they fullfilled all safety standarts of the time. As far as we know of course. But still.

@alexbernhard5936 8 месяцев назад

A lot of the time they don't want to pay reparations, for whatever reason 🥴

@jeepliving1 8 месяцев назад

The clout of mining companies in West Virginia cannot be overstated. Responsibility is rarely assigned to entities with this much power and influence.

@hannahferrell7534 8 месяцев назад

I'm a lifelong West Virginian and my family has been in the state since 1700. Thank you for covering this tragedy. Miners have been exploited and put in danger since mining started here. Many risked their lives for 'money' (company scrip coins) they could spend only at the company store until the eventual reduction of the coal business in the 1950s. MANY people died, in mining disasters of Farmington's scope or more, with the worst American mine disaster occuring in Monongah in 1907, where 367 miners died after an accidental explosion of 50 lbs of TNT. Companies still can be reckless, with 29 miners dying at Upper Big Branch in 2010. A coal baron, Don Blankenship, did go to jail for a year due to him ignoring reports of methane build up in the mine, but most industrial disasters in the state never led to criminal penalties. In the early days of mining here, it was cheaper to get a new worker in the mines than it was to get a horse or donkey, so men were treated with complete disregard. Miners were evicted and some even killed (by mercenaries hired by the coal companies) during the Mine Wars of the early 1900s. The history of coal disasters and human exploitation here are as dark and vast as the inside of the Farmington Mine. Thank you for shining a light on the sacrifices of my fellow West Virginians.

@basbleupeaunoire 8 месяцев назад

Interesting post.

@babala5760 8 месяцев назад

Much respect for WV miners. It’s a dirty dangerous job and they need recognition and respect

@susangreene9662 8 месяцев назад

Past time to end our dependence on fossil fuels!

@jmflyer55 8 месяцев назад

⁠@@susangreene9662….🙄 Really? End use of fossil fuels? Never gonna happen. At least not in this lifetime.

@alleycatalog 8 месяцев назад

My Grandma remembered shopping at the company store.

@Wulfjager 8 месяцев назад

I dont know if i should be happy, or terrified that you never seem to run out of content

@alexbutler7269 8 месяцев назад

in a couple of years time, he could probably go over a lot of our more modern stuff from this year. because 2023 needs to chill the fuck out

@NeedsMoreBirds 8 месяцев назад

It’s grim, but important to make sure nobody forgets about events like these.

@triggeredcat120 8 месяцев назад

I can imagine him in a few years covering the Oceangate incident.

@connorcore7008 8 месяцев назад

I remember borrowing "The greatest disasters of the 20th century" as an 8 year old from my school library. It's stuck with me ever since. Some horrid disasters there

@robs1852 8 месяцев назад

Neither...you should be horribly fascinated

@vustvaleo8068 8 месяцев назад

what's scary is that the miners continue working unaware of the massive explosions that shook the surface.

@jamesfowley4114 8 месяцев назад

Multiple exits and barrier doors would help keep workers in that situation safe.

@patriciamariemitchel 8 месяцев назад

@@jamesfowley4114, barrier doors could trap people in. I call for more exhaust fans, to kick in should others fail, and keep the air clean and breathable.

@stateofdisorder1 8 месяцев назад

The poor had to work, a lot knew it would kill them young. Black lung killed a lot of people

@Mxbarry 8 месяцев назад

The first explosion was approximately 5 - 6 miles away from those workers on the east side of the mine. Some said they thought they had heard a jet breaking the sound barrier, but continued working until they were told to come to the surface.

@mrsmith2876 3 месяца назад

@@patriciamariemitchelin a mine explosion a lot of times restarting the fans make it worse. In the initial explosion dust is kicked up leading to possible secondary ignitions

@rilmar2137 8 месяцев назад

I love the stories where members of the community rush in to help. That's humanity, folks. While the stories here are stories of tragedy, they often also showcase that humanity that brings back my faith in humans

@itsjohndell 8 месяцев назад

Look into the Aberfan, Wales slag disaster. True heroism there.

@Saakk129 8 месяцев назад

@GlennDavey 8 месяцев назад

@@itsjohndell I feel like I saw this on The Crown. That Queen Elizabeth was a real hero.

@carlycaye90 8 месяцев назад

Rich corporations are the worst of humanity, while the locals suffering from corporate shortcomings are the best of it lol

@WouldntULikeToKnow. 8 месяцев назад

@@GlennDaveywas she really, though?

@artur6912 8 месяцев назад

I have a few coal miners in the family, to quote my father: 9 out of 10 accidents are caused by human error/purposefully ignoring safety protocols, not because of unforeseen circumstances.

@generaleerelativity9524 8 месяцев назад

It's always the rookies and/or the old timers that have been there so long that they shouldn't even be working in the first place

@deadon4847 8 месяцев назад

@@generaleerelativity9524 You sound like a manager blaming the workers.

@thunderhead180 8 месяцев назад

"Accidents" are always caused by something. Very seldom is it caused by something like a ...Rhinoceros wandering into the lobby of a Miami hotel. But if it happens, you can bet they'll make another rule...

@peterf.229 8 месяцев назад

profits > lives is all you need to know

@stephendavies6949 8 месяцев назад

Even the Aberfan Disaster (Fascinating Horror - amongst others - has a video on it) was caused by human error: the humans that decided it was safe to tip mine waste on top of a mountain stream.

@kriscook2423 8 месяцев назад

I wish I had had the opportunity to ask my father if he had any memories of this. He would've been 32 years old and working in the southern coalfields of WV at the time. He'd been working in coal mines since before he was 16. He loved it. When he got a job stringing telephone lines across our county in the 50's and 60's he told everyone who would listen that he couldn't wait to go back to the mines. His favorite kind of mine was 'low coal' and it marvels me that a man who stood at 6 and half feet tall would enjoy crawling in a cold, wet mine. I know when we watch these videos we wonder why anyone would put themselves at risk. My father saw something in it that he loved and believed was worth it. Were the companies greedy and corrupt? Of course, but miners were and still are proud of their jobs. Intersting fact: Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia lost an uncle in the Farmington Disaster.

@als3022 8 месяцев назад

Coal Miners provided and continue to provide power and warmth to their community. It's something to be proud of.

@peterf.229 8 месяцев назад

they also help contribute to human causes global warming with the product they provide

@stephendavies6949 8 месяцев назад

My dad was a coal miner in South Wales, UK for all his working life. It was expected that working-class boys born in the mining communities would become coal miners. A few were lucky, got themselves an education and became teachers or solicitors. Some were shopkeepers or policemen. But the vast majority became miners, as that was all there was available to make a living.

@kumaahito3927 8 месяцев назад

@@peterf.229 that's true for most jobs though, with many having much more influence on it than a single miner.

@robertmiller5516 2 месяца назад

Couldn’t happen to a better person

@markbrusberg9808 8 месяцев назад

I was a child when this happened but remember how upset my grandparents were, as they knew people who lost family members. My grandfather was a miner in a neighboring county and just about everyone on their street lost friends and family in mine-related accidents. He contracted black lung but still lived well into his 80s.

@itsjohndell 8 месяцев назад

My mother was from not far away in West Virginia, her family had little to with the scourge of coal on WV but we did lose a relative at Farmington. WV is a beautiful State but graft and corruption have blighted it for 150 years and more.

@StAlphonsusHasAPosse 8 месяцев назад

Strip mining is an abomination. Yes, West Virginia and East Kentucky are beautiful but have been horribly exploited

@aileencastaneda3724 8 месяцев назад

Somebody in power AT LEAST tried to give the families closure and getting a bit of money for their families. I’m happy about that but a judge saying, it’s been 40-some years and dismisses the case. That must’ve been so hurtful, no judge took the case and it’s been waiting for some other judge to dismiss it like that. That’ll make anyone angry.

@debbieellett9093 8 месяцев назад

Exactly

@angelachouinard4581 8 месяцев назад

I am assuming it was a West Virginia judge. A friend of mine from there once told me West Virginia is not a state, it's a colony, owned by rich people and corporations that live far away and just exploit it. There is no statute of limitations on murder, except for corporations.

@BennyLlama39 8 месяцев назад

The "judge" told me that, he'd be hangin' from the nearest telephone pole within the hour as rumors that someone paid him off quickly spread.

@Lucinda_Jackson 8 месяцев назад

Interesting that everybody's mad at the judge for dismissing the case for arguably good reason. But nobody seems at all angry about the lowlife who had that information and sat on it for 46 years... To my mind, that's the real villain in this scenario.

@meetoo594 8 месяцев назад

@@Lucinda_JacksonMakes you wonder if it was him who was responsible for shutting off the alarm system and he waited until the incident faded from most peoples memory before blaming it on a now dead workmate to ease his conscience a bit and give survivors and their families a bit of closure.

@m0rg4n1sm 8 месяцев назад

hazel dickens wrote a lovely, haunting song about this disaster called, well, “the mannington mine disaster” and i’d like to share some of the lyrics from it: There is a grave way down in the Mannington mine There is a grave way down in the Mannington mine Oh, what were their last thoughts, what were their cries As the flames overtook them in the Mannington mine. So don't you believe them, my boy, That story's a lie. Remember the disaster at the Mannington mine Where seventy-eight good men so uselessly died Oh don't follow your daddy to the Mannington mine. How can God forgive you, you do know what you've done. You've killed my husband, now you want my son. well done as always, thank you for covering a horrible event with grace and class. peace to the lost souls.

@pixilixy 8 месяцев назад

I got chills now

@hannahferrell7534 8 месяцев назад

Having songs that express what miners went through help provide a voice for a people that rarely had one. I also love these lines from a Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band song "The Mountain": There's a hole in this mountain It's dark and it's deep And God only knows all the secrets it keeps There's a chill in the air only miners can't feel And there's ghosts in the tunnels that the company sealed.

@hilarylaw8415 8 месяцев назад

Both of the songs quoted literally gave me chills.

@littleredhen8205 7 месяцев назад

There's also Jeanne Ritchie's "West Virginia Mine Disaster".

@Black-Swan-007 8 месяцев назад

I always feel great sadness for those whose remains were not recovered. Not having that closure must be torture.

@dawsonmckeel8205 8 месяцев назад

You should think about doing the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 next!

@jdmb03 8 месяцев назад

My grandfather left school at 14-years-old and started working in the PA mines. He gave me great insight on what coal mining was like. Very dangerous work that paid little, but not much work back then to survive.

@lunayoshi 8 месяцев назад

Did he work during the Great Depression? My grandparents had trouble finding work too. I think they had a small farm and sold chickens and eggs to the neighborhood. They lived in Nebraska back then. After the economy bounced back, they became school teachers. They drilled into all of their kids and grandkids that the best way to survive is to get a college education. Sadly, my grandpa died before the Great Recession in the mid-2000s, but my grandma lived long enough to see how it didn't work out that way for her grandkids. Even those of us with college educations can't afford our own houses.

@daffers2345 8 месяцев назад

PA mines were (and are) dangerous too. My grandmother's uncle was a mine electrician before the days of lockout/tagout. He was working on the wires one day and told the guys not to turn on the lights ... someone either didn't know or forgot. I can't imagine being the worker that flipped the switch for the lights and had to live with that for the rest of his life.

@jacekatalakis8316 8 месяцев назад

The part about oh the company has done all it can sickens me, knowing what came out in 1990 and 2008 about the company bypassing safety features and the mine company telling an inspector about it thoughk

@ethribin4188 8 месяцев назад

To be fair... if safety standarts of back then were fullfilled, the company effectivly did do all it couldbased on what was thought/known/considered to be safe. As much as I agree companies need to be punished for cutting corners, if they do fullfill safety standarts, its not fully their fault if something goes wrong. Thats why safety standarts need constant updating and enforcement.

@jacekatalakis8316 8 месяцев назад

They weren't even following the standards pre-disaster though. NPR did an investigation on it that showed a mechanic showed up at 3am, and didn't check the fan in question wich was broken. Post disaster, the alarm was found to be deliberately bypassed, and this was put in a memo to the Bureau of Mines, but the memo was ordered to be filed away though@@ethribin4188

@molybdomancer195 8 месяцев назад

@@ethribin4188did you watch the video? The company may have circumvented existing safety regulations presumably for greater profits.

@Kuroiikawa 8 месяцев назад

@@ethribin4188In a perfect world, that might be the case. But unfortunately we live in a world where massively profitable companies are allowed to lobby the politicians and, in turn, influence the regulations that they have to adhere to. There's a reason why cigarette companies were so insistent that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer and why the 0.1% of studies that reach an "inconclusive" conclusion about Climate Change are funded by Exxon Mobil, BP, and other fossil fuel companies.

@juliebransfield529 8 месяцев назад

And that's cold comfort to the families who lost loved ones. Piling on to victims.

@-suphur 8 месяцев назад

Cutting corners in the name of profits and simple neglect are usually the two biggest factors in disasters like this. Here in Canada, there was a mine called Westray in Nova Scotia. An economically depressed region, where the jobs were welcome. A history of other mining incidents in the region as the orebody was particularly dangerous. Safety mechanisms on machines were bypassed, the coal dust which is highly flammable was allowed to build up and eventuallly it led to a disaster. The government had instilled a law nationally called the Westray act, to criminally charge upper brass when neglect has been determined in the death of workers, but in all the years that have passed since and all of the death that have occurred, nobody has been charged under that act. You should do an episode on that incident, it's an interesting story and there are some documentaries out there about it, @Fascinating Horror.

@Kanbei11 8 месяцев назад

That's the issue with the law, it's only really a law if it's enforced fairly and equally. I am unfamiliar with the story but I suspect that the law was implemented to pacify public opinion rather than to enact change

@-suphur 8 месяцев назад

@@Kanbei11 It appears that way. It targets the executives and management of corporations, the same people they cozy up to in backdoor meetings and coddle because of the taxes generated by the business. So it seems to just be a token gesture if it was never implemented. There was an incident locally, where there was impounded water on one level and it was encroaching onto an active ore pass. It is an incredibly dangerous occurrance to have muck (broken ore trammed by scoops) mixed with water in a pass (a chute between two levels). Dry muck is controlable at the bottom, where wet and worse, soaked muck can possibly cause a run. One of the people involved, a shift boss that I had worked with, had sent multiple internal emails to his bosses with concerns about that ore pass and possible water entering into it. Those went ignored, or at least, never dealt with. Around three weeks after the water issue started, that ore pass hung up at the bottom on the lower level. That shiftboss and the scoop operator were in the area, rigging an exposive shot to loosen the much and get the pass down when it let go and rushed out, burying them both. The company ended up with some nominal fine, a couple of hundred thousand and nobody on management was ever charged with anything. This is a multi-billion dollar corporation, that fine was loose change and didn't even go to the families.

@sister_bertrille911 8 месяцев назад

There are quite a few mining disasters on this channel, in different countries. Note to self: do not going into a mine.

@frankmarano1118 8 месяцев назад

Yes this is why safety regulations are important. Companies are designed by nature to place priority on making more money to please shareholders. The free market is great but it doesn't magically solve all issues so a regulating body is needed or companies will cut corners. Imagine living in your house if it didn't have any electrical, fire, or safety regulations. Also after these incidents happen new regulations are always added which is us learning from our mistakes. Every company owner can't be expected to know the history of every single incident after all. Regulatory bodies make far more sense

@reddwarfer999 8 месяцев назад

And the attitude of the mining company? Basically - 'shit happens'.

@spider-queen 8 месяцев назад

this is a small thing to comment on but something I appreciate about your channel is how you provide multiple units of measurement (eg. km and miles) whenever talking numbers, it's a nice touch that not everyone bothers to include

@LewTitterton 8 месяцев назад

Except his conversion on square km to square mi is incorrect. Oops.

@dontwanagivit1860 5 месяцев назад

It's a pretty important thing! I stop watching channels that's don't provide metric and other SI units.

@jrmcdonald7510 8 месяцев назад

This event was on the minds of mining folks in Kentucky when they held a strike to increase safety in the mid70s. It was captured in the Oscar winning documentary, Harlan County, USA. It's a fascinating look at the coal industry and how it affected the surrounding communities.

@StAlphonsusHasAPosse 8 месяцев назад

My husband was from Harlan county. You can drive around the communities in E. Kentucky and still see the company houses and the company stores. They are not company towns anymore, but poor people still live in the houses. Remember the Patty Lovelace song: "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive." It's also called Bloody Harlan because of the strikes.

@awboat 8 месяцев назад

When I moved out west and found people had no idea about WV and the coal industry. I always recommend they watch Harlan County USA and Matewan.

@ellodica 8 месяцев назад

My family is from Farmington, WV and most of them grew up either in the mines or living above them. I heard lots of stories of mine explosions and collapses (my grandma was living directly above the #9 disaster of ‘54) and knew a lot of people who died in the subsequent years. A lot of my WV family with connections to this industry has passed, so I really appreciate videos like this because it’s like family history in a way, so thank you!!

@CallieRiggs5711 8 месяцев назад

I'm a life long West Virginian and my mom taught WV History for quite a few years so I grew up hearing about these disasters and how horribly they were treated. Thank you for covering this in the simple ways that you do, with no pizazz or anything like that. Facts and straight to the point, the way it should be.

@daffers2345 8 месяцев назад

I have appreciated this approach since I found his channel. It's refreshing to have someone who is straightforward, not including sensationalism or opinion, and who doesn't beg for likes/subscribes! His matter-of-fact reporting makes these stories worse than if they were "improved" with sensationalist stuff.

@76629online 8 месяцев назад

I was born in West Virginia. My family has lived there for more than 300 years. Nearly all the men in the family worked in the mines from the early to mid 1800's, well into the mid 1970's. My great grandfather and all my uncles and cousins who were living at the time were at the battle of Blair Mountain. A lot of men spent a lifetime doing back-breaking work in those coal mines. Most people can't even conceive of it.

@NefariousTropy 8 месяцев назад

I was born and raised in Fairmont, WV, and this and the 1907 Monongah disaster were pretty thoroughly covered in history lessons. My family had a lot of coal miners in it, and its honestly criminal how often overlooked mining history is. Miners were treated like slaves with a few extra steps to keep it legal, to the point where they were paid in company scrip (only useable at the company store) and were permanently indebted to the company. If I recall correctly, I do have some pretty close kin that were directly involved with the Farmington disaster. I'll have to ask my parents and edit my comment later on if that is the case. These are stories that need to be told and never forgotten. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

@anna_in_aotearoa3166 8 месяцев назад

Good point highlighting just how entirely local communities were held over a financial barrel by the big mining conglomerates! 😢 Must have made it really difficult for them to feel they could effectively demand safer conditions, even via unionization or by voting to elect safety-minded public officials who might change industry regulations? The extremity of their circumstances seems to have actually fostered a kind of perverse pride for many coalminers too - not just in their skill, but in how dangerous the work was & thus how "hard" they were? Which also contributed to later problems with improving safety practice. We still see some echoes of that attitude to safety today. It's hard to get one's head around just how unpleasant their working conditions must have been...? Spending their days deep underground, in cramped & odiferous quarters, constantly filthy, working to exhaustion, risking black lung & explosions & collapses & shaft floods. Yikes.

@NefariousTropy 8 месяцев назад

@@anna_in_aotearoa3166 Difficult is an understatement. What the mining companies did was essentially legal slavery. They owned the town, the store, the local utilities, and they essentially were the government. If a miner got fired, then he was suddenly thrust into a situation where the only money he had was worthless outside of the company store, and now he and his family were being kicked out of their homes because the company owned them. The conditions that pushed miners to strike were beyond abysmal. The companies saw them as fully expendable, and did everything they could to control their lives. And when the miners did strike, the companies called in the government to deal with the situation rather then give up a single speck of their power. Never forget that the history of safety regulation is written in blood. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

@Face2theScr33n 8 месяцев назад

My Grandfather died in the 1954 explosion. Safety regulations, all of them, are written in blood. It's sad people have to be maimed and killed for improvements to be made, but that's the way of the world. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" type of thinking makes sense until there's a disaster. Then it becomes quite regrettable.

@k33k32 8 месяцев назад

I think that's a problem with our culture, it is "profit at any cost" driven.

@KyleEvra 8 месяцев назад

Wage Slaves blood.

@swiley223 8 месяцев назад

I live near Farmington. That memorial is very powerful.

@stevenwoods775 8 месяцев назад

As an underground miner, i love when you cover mine incidents.

@daffers2345 8 месяцев назад

Where do you mine?

@Yamaha38XCRacer 8 месяцев назад

I’m a 5th generation WV miner… started in low coal, have 12 years and counting so far on the longwall.

@vaclav_fejt 8 месяцев назад

Will you cover the 1961 Dukla coal mine fire? 108 dead...responsible people stayed, the incidenct was hushed up.

@Katie_Lopez 8 месяцев назад

I live in the beautiful, small town of Farmington, thank you for covering this. It’s not the only mine disaster we’ve had in Marion County but it still holds a place in all our minds.

@MusicoftheDamned 8 месяцев назад

As soon as I saw this was about a mine disaster, I expected it to be in the group of disasters you've covered where a company (knowingly) screws up but inevitably gets away with it. Sadly that's true even with the claim at 10:08 being impossible to verify all these years later.

@curtisdaniel9294 8 месяцев назад

A great fictionalized story about a coal mining family in Wales in the early 1900s: How Green Was My Valley. Film version in the 1940s.

@nlwilson4892 8 месяцев назад

I saw the film version. I'll just point out the huge house it showed them living in was very much not real. Typically you'd be looking at a terraced house about 4 metres wide, 2 rooms upstairs and 2 downstairs. If you were really lucky you'd have a privy in the yard, if not you'd be sharing a few households to one.

@LouiseBurrows 8 месяцев назад

I live a few miles away from the old ironworkers cottages at Blaenavon (South Wales, UK). A visit to those tiny basic houses really makes me appreciate my modern comforts, my house being a spacious railway worker's terrace cottage from the 1880s for comparison.

@seandelap8587 8 месяцев назад

I always look forward to a Tuesday morning fix of FH

@qx4n9e1xp 8 месяцев назад

Chewsday 😂

@larrybl 8 месяцев назад

I was 10 YO at the time, and remember the back windows being blown out in our house. We lived 3 - 4 miles away from #9, and did most of our shopping at the company store.

@AppalachianHistoryDetectives 8 месяцев назад

Born and raised near this town. My neighbor was killed in this blast and this had a deep impact on the community. Many kids my age lost their fathers in this blast.

@randylahey1232 8 месяцев назад

At the bottom of this Mine lies a big big man....big john...rip mr Jimmy Dean that was and still is a beautiful song you wrote

@C-Here 8 месяцев назад

Is that a real song? I'm gonna google it... 👍 Edit- thank you, I found it- I remember this song from many years ago... Very moving tbh..

@kevlarkid928 8 месяцев назад

Crazy how they couldn't find alot of bodies.

@lifewuzonceezr 8 месяцев назад

@@kevlarkid928seriously creepy!

@laurena7894 8 месяцев назад

I cant believe how much this channel has grown. Thank you for getting me through the wildest last four years

@Danger_mouse 8 месяцев назад

Thanks as always for your sensitive covering of this disaster. I'm in hard rock mining in Australia, and have been for 20+ years. I have actively avoided the coal mining industry for this very reason. While there are hazards, and even deaths in hard rock mining, at least our air isn't explosive and our rocks don't burn.

@junemurphy6293 8 месяцев назад

My dad was a miner. He ended up being trapped under a full bogey of coal. When it broke away. It was too fast to get out of the way. A year and a bit more. He had bone grafts. Metal plate fitted. Ankle fused together and finally skin grafts (right leg)

@KyleEvra 8 месяцев назад

Such a shame.

@dgotsche 8 месяцев назад

Thanks for telling the story. I think it was told in a very dignified way, considering the horrible consequences of human error and bad working conditions. I appreciate it not being overly sensationalized, like so many other channels, and it showed at the end how much it still affects the community. Their memorial also seems like a sad, sobering, but a very poignant reminder of those lives lost and the families that suffered.

@davidjturner 8 месяцев назад

Something pretty grimly horrifying about the decision and action to seal the mine in order to contain the fire. Yes, they took the air samples and determined it was highly improbable anybody could still be alive, yes after that much time there was almost certainly nobody still down there, etc etc, but part of me can't help but wonder if that sealed the fates of anybody still holding out somewhere, somehow down there.

@nlwilson4892 8 месяцев назад

The same was done with the Wellington Pit Disaster in 1910. Sadly once any significant fire takes hold there is nothing that can be done to stop it other than seal the mine. You give time for anyone alive to get out from other routes then you have to deal it. No-one is going to be alive because of the build-up of CO and CO2.

@skyden24195 8 месяцев назад

My great-grandfather was a coal miner in the state of Alabama during the early 20th century. I've heard many times throughout my life the story of how my great-grandfather constantly told his son (my grandfather,) "Don't be a coal miner." My grandfather heeded the advice and would become one of the first recruits into the newly established, independent military branch of the United States Air Force (USAF) around 1950, (give or take some years.) I have incredible respect for those who endure, or have endured, the life of a miner, coal or otherwise.

@SherbertLW 8 месяцев назад

Thank you for making a video of my suggestion. I love your channel, thank you for all you do!

@napoleon6221 8 месяцев назад

Watched a video about this disaster during my miner training, thankfully in the current day mine disasters like this are extremely rare. The last mine explosion in the United States was upper big branch over 10 years ago now. Edit: I’d also love to see you do a video on upper big branch, it’s a crazy story.

@griffith5704 7 месяцев назад

Only 10 Years ago isn't long. Sadly it's only a matter of time before another tragedy.

@napoleon6221 7 месяцев назад

@@griffith5704you have a point, but as someone who’s worked in a coal mine I don’t see such a large scale disaster happening again in the United States unless lots of things go terribly wrong. Miners aren’t inbred hillbillies, they take gas detection and stuff extremely seriously. After the huge fallout with Don Blankenship most miners refuse to let that sort of thing happen again.

@hilarylaw8415 8 месяцев назад

I watched the interviews with the miners. Somber and thought provoking. Thank you for your outstanding work and for linking the interviews.

@tammyhollandaise 8 месяцев назад

You ought to check out the DeBruce grain elevator explosion. It highlights the dangers of dust accumulation combined with poor equipment maintenance.

@zekesgirl100 8 месяцев назад

Yes! Please do the DeBruce Grain Elevator!

@markchamberlain9856 8 месяцев назад

Thanks again for another sad but great video. Keep up the good work!

@Straswa 7 месяцев назад

Great work FH, thank you for covering this tragedy.

@rodgerpiercearchitect 4 месяца назад

Fascinating Horror is my favorite! Keep ‘em coming thanks much

@kathyjones5085 8 месяцев назад

My parents are from West Virginia. My dad knew many people that worked in the mines. He worked for a while in the mines but my mom always worried and he didn't want to continue to do mining because of the dangers. My parents had seven children living in WV then my dad heard about construction jobs in Pennsylvania so when their youngest was three weeks old they moved up here. He got a good job in construction. My parents had two more kids here. I was their eighth and then my younger sister was the ninth. Three boys then six girls. Loll Some of my dad's friends died from black lung disease.

@sallykohorst8803 8 месяцев назад

Thanks for sharing this interesting story.

@jackking5567 8 месяцев назад

Methane and underground coal mining - there was one mine in Northumberland that was said to be really bad for the gas. The methane was said to be of a higher pressure and breaking into a gas pocket (it's held within cracks and fissures) was akin to opening a gas main but underground. Thankfully this particular mine never had an explosion but miners said it did put them on edge from time to time.

@susiesweet8003 8 месяцев назад

I live in southwestern PA & I remember this well. 😥

@mwheape 8 месяцев назад

In 1998, a classmate of my daughter lost her father in an explosion in a mine in West Virginia, near Bluefield. Accidents still happen. It's heart breaking, gut-wrenching to watch a kindergartner try to process what had happened.

@JGCR59 8 месяцев назад

Excellent video. As today is the anniversary of it, how about a video on the Lengede mine disaster in Germany in 1963 and the subsequent "miracle" of recovering survivors? Though it was a totally different cause being flooding vs gas explosion

@hannevanbakker9021 8 месяцев назад

I was just going to comment this.

@thomasspotloe7054 8 месяцев назад

i worked at this mine for the first year of my career. still very fresh in the minds of the crews there.

@cya2163 8 месяцев назад

Both my grampas were coal miners...I dunno if they actually liked it or not (both were long gone before I was born), but to me the idea of working underground is nothing short of terrifying...

@catherinespark 6 месяцев назад

I’ve never heard anyone talk of that kind of coal mining at that time with a deep affection. Cameraderie among miners, yes. The job? No.

@merrituber1 8 месяцев назад

WV (my home state) just always seems so unlucky 😞

@yelling3874 8 месяцев назад

At this point, since a lot of bigger or better known disasters have been covered on this channel, a lot of times the "biggest ____ disaster in _____ history" part of the video makes it sound like maybe the disaster won't be so bad. And then sometimes we hear "mining" and "west virginia" 😬

@hilarylaw8415 8 месяцев назад

Sir, your voice is perfection. Nothing less.

@black98rt 8 месяцев назад

Talked to a lady several years ago who lost her husband in this explosion. Also saw the memorial site once while on a fishing trip. Really seems like a small world sometimes.

@kriscook2423 8 месяцев назад

Very well made video about this disaster. I don't offen get to see videos about my home state.

@dpahfl 8 месяцев назад

This is in my neck of the woods and I never realized how big this mine was until you showed the map at 4:02.

@austrich83 8 месяцев назад

I'd be interested in seeing more about the incident at Times Beach, MO or the Hoosac Tunnel in MA.

@joyeternal2314 8 месяцев назад

Wow, I never thought I’d hear the name of this town again. I went to Farmington when I went to visit ShipRock in New Mexico in 2020

@krugerfuchs 8 месяцев назад

You're videos are always so cool 😎

@user-cw3wm9lx7w 8 месяцев назад

I have some cousins in West Virginia and there was a major disaster in the Pan handle. My Uncle, lived in the panhandle where he raised horses. And there was a loud boom, and about 2 hours later a West Virginian state trooper knocked on his door and said that there was an explosion at an oil refinery and you need to evacuate. Unfortunately his neighbor a very poor very elderly woman wasn’t notified of the disaster. Lucky for her, he saw her car still in front of the house and knocked on her door, after he had loaded all the horses into the trailer. She was about 90 years old and on government assistance and the State trooper missed her, so he helped her evacuate.

@jc19766 8 месяцев назад

Mine disasters were a way of life in the Appalachians back then. I lost a relative in the Robena Mine disaster (1962) in Carmicheals, PA, about an hour away from Farmington. At the PA Welcome Center off I-79 near the WV border, there is a memorial to the miners who lost their lives. Just awful...

@rayhume1971 8 месяцев назад

On one hand, people felt the blast 12 milea away. On the other, it wasn't even noticed by some people on sight. Nature is strange.

@alanrogers7090 8 месяцев назад

I remember this tragedy. I had just started college at the time. Farmington was a few miles from my birthplace of Daybrook, WV.

@coffeeshopcomics 8 месяцев назад

Finally a West Virginia disaster video. Great job on the research

@nj81499 8 месяцев назад

Great vid👍

@wildwackywasteland 8 месяцев назад

Thanks for the vid , can you do one about Sknyliv air show disaster ?

@bridoll313 4 месяца назад

You should make a video on the Upper Branch Mine disaster in WV.

@fredsalter1915 8 месяцев назад

1:33 holy molly! Are those open flame candles on those miner's helmets??!??!??? Insane!!

@gsdalpha1358 8 месяцев назад

It's a historical picture probably from the mid 1800's, not a representation of miners in 1968.

@CameronShute 8 месяцев назад

This video makes me want to see a video on the Sunshine Mine Disaster in Kellogg, Idaho

@billbino6560 8 месяцев назад

Absolutely love the metric and imperial units being used

@minervaannmcgonagall 8 месяцев назад

I really enjoy your deep dives into these disasters! Very informative! But you really need to check out the Orient no. 2 Mine disaster on December 21, 1951. I come from a long line of Coal miners, and even work in the industry myself, and there wasn’t a family in my town that wasn’t affected by the disaster.

@hannevanbakker9021 8 месяцев назад

There is an Email address for suggestions in the video description

@beverlyforward7173 8 месяцев назад

Well done!

@kateburke2620 8 месяцев назад

Something similar occurred here in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2011. The Pike River Mine Disaster :(

@cadillacdeville5828 8 месяцев назад

Good MORNING 🌄. I absolutely ❤your videos 📷.

@ljenk5 8 месяцев назад

Thanks!!

@HannaDawnAwesome 8 месяцев назад

West Virginia is my home state! Still waiting for you to look into the willow island disaster!! My grandfather was a survivor!!

@AndrewJamesWilliams 8 месяцев назад

Those miners whose bodies were never found were likely literally cremated by the fire, especially as the kind of coal mined in Virginia is largely anthracite coal which while it doesn't ignite easily once it starts to burn it burns extremely hot and an anthracite coal fire is almost impossible to put out.

@sketchyskies8531 8 месяцев назад

The fact that working in mines was already dangerous, but now they had to worry about random deadly explosions

@danc3488 6 месяцев назад

A few years ago, I went to Beckly, WV and toured the old mine there that's now a tourist attraction. It was an amazing experience, and the tour guide (a retired miner himself) spoke about this fire during the tour. A favorite line he used was "You owed your soul to the company and the store". Coal literally IS West Virginia. This is why people like Senator Joe Manchin continuously fights against regulations that would stop coal from being used as it was intended. Of course, the damage it's doing to the climate is well-documented, so for West Virginia it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

@scummymummy911 8 месяцев назад

The music is scary. I'm always first to watch these videos ❤

@YuBeace 8 месяцев назад

We’ve all heard of the canary in the coal mine. But some companies prefer the humans to be the canaries instead.

@melodyszadkowski5256 8 месяцев назад

I did a research project in high school about the pitiful horses that worked in the coal mines back in the day. Their autopsy results (especially the lungs) were horrendous.

@naomisgram1 8 месяцев назад

😢😢

@motorTranz 8 месяцев назад

May God comfort the families of the 78 who perished. My sincerest condolences.

@kvmalley 8 месяцев назад

I love his narrations, such a calming and soothing voice with a very non judgmental or incriminating approach! Mee-thane gas, gotta love the original English interpretations. Remember folks, it started with them, not with us in America! I love and marvel how the British and Scottish pronounce common English words! It sounds wrong but again (a-gane), it’s we that have it all wrong not them! 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@k.c1126 8 месяцев назад

I wish miners had better compensation packages as well as improved safety procedures. This is such a dangerous job from every point of view.

@k.c1126 8 месяцев назад

@@Die-Angst So sad but also so true... 😔

@lottiefinkle1572 8 месяцев назад

Reminds me of Pike River mine.

@davidscharenberg9709 8 месяцев назад

If it's mine disasters you want, look into the Cherry Mine Disaster from 1909 in Cherry, Illinois. Truly fascinating. Truly horrible. The 115th anniversary takes place in 2024.

@catherinespark 6 месяцев назад

I don’t think anyone WANTS such disasters, but I know what you mean :)

@bl1754 8 месяцев назад

One of the worst things about coal mine fires is that coal dust suspended in air is extremely flammable, meaning even a small fire can easily balloon into a huge explosion

@kimhohlmayer7018 8 месяцев назад

I was raised just across the river from the state of West Virginia. Our tri- state area is all a coal zone with many mines both deep and strip still operate. I was 10 when this accident happened. But it was not a limited occurrence. News often reported upon mine disasters large and small. It was horrifically common.

@EvieKng 8 месяцев назад

Nice!!

@joethebrowser2743 8 месяцев назад

Great channel 1👍🏻🇬🇧👀...

@scotty_blocks 8 месяцев назад

How devastating for the local community.

@CymruDad 6 месяцев назад

Tragic. Always seems to be due to companies cutting H&S precautions. Suggestion for a video on a similar mining disaster - Gresford Colliery Disaster, in North Wales 1934, which killed 266 men.

@beagleissleeping5359 8 месяцев назад

I mentioned I was watching a video about the Sago mine accident that happened in 2006. My manager then informed me that one of her best friends had died in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in April of 2010. ☹️