Post-Gazette Gets Inside Alma Investigation

Dennis Roddy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that investigators in the ongoing investigation of the January 19 West Virginia mine fire that claimed two lives found stoppings gone that should have been there according to the ventilation plan. Roddy cites multiple "sources"; no one's talking on the record. Reportedly:

"The conveyor belt ignited on the morning of Jan. 19, pouring smoke through the gaps in the wall and into the fresh air passageway that the miners were supposed to use for their escape, obscuring their vision and ultimately leading to the death of two of them."