Centrilla Coal Mine

Centralia Coal Mine

A Brief History:

On March 25th, 1947, a deadly coal mine explosion rocked the calm, peaceful town of Centralia, IL. This particular coal mine was providing coal to the war effort in World War II. A charge ignited built-up coal dust and caused the explosion. This should have surprised no one. Many public sector safety professional, Union council, federal agencies knew of the hazards and knew the result of it. The mine company and various officials of mine safety agencies were notified about the danger of Coal mine 5 at Centralia, IL. Failure to take action to abate the hazard resulted in the loss 111 precious hard working men who had spent much of their lives mining coal.

Scanlan Alternatives:

In 1941 Driscoll Scanlan was send to inspect the Centralia No. 5 coal mine by Robert Medill the director of the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals. Scanlan found out that the mine was highly explosive due to coal dust build up. He suggested that the mine must be shut down immediately till everything is been cleaned. The report and recommendations were ignored by the company. Scanlan did send the report again and again and I was ignored by the Bell and Zoller Coal Mine Company who owned the Centralia coal mine. 5. There were many alternative ways Scanlan could have addressed his findings and could have prevented the accident. The ways are as follows and described.

One way could be that Scanlan was appointed by the Department of Mines and Minerals and when he mentioned the danger in mine in his report he should have suggested shutting it down immediately and have made sure that the mine was clean and safe for the workers. He did point out the danger of mine and he did mention about the lives which will be lost in case the accident occurs. But unfortunately he did not use his powers to prevent the accident.

Secondly when he knew it that his reports and suggestions are being ignored he should have taken this matter to Union itself then to the...