Search continues for the miners missing in blast at West Va.
MONTCOAL, W.Va. – Grieving relatives began burying victims of the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster Friday as crews neared a refuge chamber deep underground where they had faint hope that survivors might be awaiting rescue.
It was their fourth try to find the four miners missing since Monday's explosion killed 25 others in the nation's worst underground disaster since at least 1984. During the previous rescue attempt, searchers were forced to withdraw by dangerous gases and the risk of fire or explosion.
Gov. Joe Manchin promised families they should have answers by midnight.
"They just want to take their fathers and their husbands and their sons and their uncles, they want to take them home," he said. "They just want to bring them home."
Rescuers hoped the miners might have made it to the chamber stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for several days.
Late Friday, officials said their fourth try to check the chamber was progressing better than previous ones and crews were within 2,000 feet of where they needed to be. They expected an answer by midnight and said they hoped to start recovering bodies even if no one was in the chamber, an expandable box activated by opening a door and pulling a lever.
"We are praying for a miracle," President Barack Obama said in Washington.
Of the 25 confirmed dead, 18 bodies remained inside the mine.
"We believe that without any unforeseen problems ... (we) will be able to bring some finality to it tonight," Manchin said.
About a dozen people huddled around a television set at a pizza place near the mines to listen to Manchin speak, and many flashed smiles Manchin said he anticipated the rescue mission would end soon.
"We just keep hoping we'll have closure soon — good or bad, as long as it ends soon," said Sarah James, a 23-year-old whose husband is a surface miner.
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