BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

(Editor’s Note: This is a rewrite of a story Lovern penned in 2006 about the Kermit mine disaster at Burning Springs on Jan. 18, 1951. Information for the original story came from newspaper archives at the Mingo County Library in Williamson and from an interview with the late Clyde Sparks, who lost both his father and a brother in the mine explosion.)

KERMIT — It turned out to be a dark day in the history of the Kermit area in Mingo County. One of the worst coal mine disasters in Mingo County’s history occurred Jan. 18, 1951, at the Burning Springs Collieries No. 1 Mine just outside downtown Kermit, where 11 coal miners died after a huge methane gas explosion.

The terrible explosion happened around 1:10 p.m. on that cold January afternoon.

Approximately 25 men were working 4,000 feet underground from the drift mouth on two separate sections inside the deep, dark coal mine when the sudden blast echoed through the caverns.

The men working in one section escaped uninjured while only two survived the explosion in the No. 9 section where the blast ensued.

The late Clyde Sparks, who was 80 at the time of his interview in 2006, resided in Kermit. He was the father of current Kermit Mayor Charles Sparks. Clyde Sparks lost both his father, 46-year-old Charley Sparks, and his brother, 26-year-old Proctor Sparks, in the tragic explosion.

“When they found Bill Bowens alive, that gave us hope,” Sparks said. At the time of the original story, the Sago Mine disaster at Tallmansville, W.Va., had recently happened and was eerily similar to the 1951 Kermit mine explosion.

“He had a tough time recovering from his injuries,” Sparks said of Bowens. “He spent a long time in the hospital and never fully recovered.”

Unfortunately, 11 hard-working coal miners perished at the Burning Springs mine and two men were seriously injured. Bowens, 35 at the time, of nearby Stepptown, W.Va., and Joseph Hinkle, 34, of Inez, Ky., were never the same, according to Sparks. The survivors suffered severe burns and other injuries.

Sparks was working at the old Southern Maid Dairy in Williamson when he heard about the explosion. A good friend drove him to Kermit that afternoon. He and others waited at the mouth of the hollow for news about the family members and miners.

At the time, Sparks said he was probably one of the oldest living family members still residing in the Kermit area who recalled that horrific day and the deadly mine explosion.

“It was a bad thing – this is a small town and everybody knows everybody,” the late Sparks said. “You had all of those funerals about the same time. All of the families lived close, or only a few miles apart.”

An old newspaper article stated: “T.L. Lambert, superintendent of the mine, accompanied a group of rescue workers back inside the blast-torn area and remained until all of the bodies had been recovered.”

The area was still considered “hot” and with very little ventilation.

The first bodies were recovered about 3 p.m., and it was two hours later before the final of the 11 miners were located. All 11 of the workers reportedly died instantly from the blast.

“I was 25 years old when it happened,” Sparks said. “Except for a couple of weeks at a truck mine on Big Creek, Ky., I never really worked in the mines.”

However, Sparks said his father thought about getting him a job at the Kermit mine “but decided against it. I could have been in there that day.”

“There was a lot of grief by the families and the townspeople,” Sparks recalled. “It was a sad time.

“When a small town loses that many people at one time, it’s a depressing time.”

Sparks said he often thought about the Burning Creek Collieries mine disaster. Any mine disaster that occurred brought back memories of the Mingo County incident.

Like one coal miner in the Sago Mine disaster, one Kermit miner was off work that day due to a death in the family, or he would have been in the mine with his co-workers. Bob Johnson, of East Kermit, had been to his sister’s funeral and missed work that day.

The old article on the mine explosion stated that “state and federal mine officials clamped down a rigid censorship as soon as they arrived. For three hours they kept the crowd back at the mouth of the hollow on the main highway along [U.S. 52].”

The Associated Press reported on Jan. 19, 1951, that a “gaseous condition,” spotted by federal mine inspectors a few days earlier, was blamed for the explosion in the 32-year-old pit.

Here is a list of those coal miners who died in the 1951 mine explosion at Kermit.

Tom Moore Sr., 48, driller, of Marrowbone Creek.

Tom Moore Jr., 23, shuttle car operator, of Marrowbone Creek.

Charley Sparks, 46, loading machine helper, of Kermit.

Proctor Sparks, 26, machine man, of Kermit.

John Chafin, 31, section boss, of Stepptown.

Charley Porter, 57, timber-man, of Missouri Branch.

Lashley Mounts, 33, electrician, of Beauty.

Delbert Dalton, 27, shuttle car operator, of Inez.

Conrad Dalton, 43, shooter, of Inez.

Sherman Fields, 34, machine operator, of Beauty.

(Note: There were three sets of family members killed in the mine accident: Sparks, Moore and Dalton. Jan. 18 marks the 71st anniversary of the tragedy.)