ICG provided grief counseling to Sago employees
after the accident and has since renewed the offer:
"I'm not sure anybody ever gets over it," said Vickie Boni, the former wife of John Nelson Boni, who police said shot himself Saturday at his home in Volga. "You live with it every day."-
Both Boni and William Lee (Flea) Chisolm, 47, who authorities said shot himself at his Belington home Aug. 29, were working at the Sago Mine on the day of the blast and had been questioned by investigators along with dozens of other witnesses.
A former co-worker of Boni's said investigators made them feel like they had done something wrong. Ron Grall, who escaped with Boni and the rest of their crew that day, said: "They treated me the same way. They acted like it was our fault, like we did it."
Mine owner International Coal Group has said it believes a lightning bolt somehow ignited methane gas that had accumulated naturally in a sealed-off section of the mine.
Smith/AP/CBS
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The Manchin administration has yet to start spending a federal grant approved five months ago meant to help provide counseling to residents struggling with the lingering trauma of the Sago Mine disaster.
Federal officials approved the $35,000 grant in April, but the state has not released the funding to the Appalachian Community Mental Health Center in Elkins.
"We're not sure where it is," said Richard Kiley, a licensed psychologist and director of the Elkins center.
Ward/CharlestonGazette
-"With all these roof falls and everything that has happened over the multiple months, not weeks, MONTHS, that this has happened, and they STILL send men in there?"The miners knew the Sago Mine was unsafe. And their families in the surrounding towns knew it too. The slap-on-the-wrist fines of the mine inspectors left an unmistakable paper trail for everyone else - serious violations jumped four times in 2005 over 2004.
John Bennett, son of a Sago miner, confronting West Virginian Gov. Joe Manchin Today show, Jan. 4, 2005
Mike Ely/Counterpunch January 2006
It was the worst week of Wilbur Ross' life, that week those guys were trapped down there. Not much danger of him suiciding, though.
All in all he's keeping pretty busy.
That's the ticket, that's the key - keeping busy.
