Qualla: Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster

Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cmhershmam, CC BY-SA 4.0. The mine had received two safety citations the day before. Fifty-seven in the previous month. Six hundred in the preceding eighteen months. One thousand three hundred forty-two in the past five years. On April 5, 2010, at 3:27 p.m., a coal dust explosion ripped through Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal in Raleigh County, West Virginia, killing 29 of the 31 people working underground. It was the worst American mining disaster since 1970. A miner working seven miles away said the blast made his ears stop up and felt like being in the middle of a tornado. The independent investigation that followed would find Massey Energy directly responsible -- a company that, in the report's words, operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner.

Image: Cmhershmam | CC BY-SA 4.0

Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: Three Twenty-Seven

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Stansberry (photographer), CC BY 4.0. The explosion struck the Upper Big Branch South Mine, operated by Performance Coal Company, a subsidiary of Massey Energy, about 50 miles south of Charleston. One survivor described first feeling a rush of air, then a blast of hurricane-force winds, then flying debris as he fough...

Image: Brian Stansberry (photographer) | CC BY 4.0

Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: A Paper Trail of Warnings

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain. The Upper Big Branch mine had accumulated one of the worst safety records in the American coal industry. Between 1995 and 2010, the Mine Safety and Health Administration levied over $2.2 million in fines against Massey for more than 3,000 safety violations at the mine. In 2009 al...

Image: The White House from Washington, DC | Public domain

Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: The Reckoning

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Stansberry (photographer), CC BY 4.0. Investigators could not enter the mine until July 2, 2010 -- more than two months after the blast -- because of lingering toxic gases. When the independent investigation team released its report on May 19, 2011, it condemned both Massey Energy and the federal Mine Safety and Heal...

Image: Brian Stansberry (photographer) | CC BY 4.0

Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: When You Work for Massey

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Stansberry (photographer), CC BY 4.0. One miner put it plainly: when you work for Massey, you give your life to Massey. The company was the sixth-largest coal producer in the country, operating 56 mines in a region historically dependent on the industry. Families of the dead were furious that they learned of their lo...

Image: Brian Stansberry (photographer) | CC BY 4.0