Coal Mining Disasters: 1839 to Present

Note: Click on the column headings to sort ascending/descending or use the search box to narrow results by keyword or term.

* More fatalities are shown than listed in the MSHA database due to the inclusion of federal inspector fatalities that are part of OSHA records.

** Subsequent incident occurred 8/16/2007 during the rescue efforts that claimed the lives of three rescue workers (including one MSHA employee).

Information for historical mine disasters was obtained from the following publications:

• Bureau of Mines Bulletin 509, Injury Experience in Coal Mining, 1948
• Bureau of Mines Bulletin 616, Historical Documentation of Major Coal-Mine Disasters in the United States Not Classified as Explosions of Gas or Dust: 1846-1962
• Bureau of Mines Bulletin 586; Historical Summary of Coal-Mine Explosions in the United States, 1810-1958
• Bureau of Mines I.C. 7493, Major Disasters at Metal and Nonmetal Mines and Quarries in the United States (Excluding Coal Mines)
• Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States, Volume I, Coal Mines, 1810-1958 (MSHA)
• Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States, Volume II, Coal Mines, 1959-1998 (MSHA)
• Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States, Volume III, Metal and Nonmetal Mines, 1885-1998 (MSHA)
• Mine Disasters, OT 32, 2000 (MSHA)
• 1998-present, MSHA Fatalgrams and Fatality Reports
• Newspaper article citations from the archives at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy Library, Beckley, West Virginia (Historical Mining Disasters by Jane DeMarchi)
• Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States

Historical accident reports are available in the library archives at the National Mine Health & Safety Academy in Beckley, West Virginia. Please contact the MSHA Academy at 304-256-3266 or MSHAlibrary@dol.gov to check on the availability of a particular report.  Visit MSHA's Home Page for recent mine accident reports.