West Virginia Mine Cleared for Rescue Attempt

Updated 7:04 a.m. EDT

Rescue crews began working their way through a West Virginia coal mine in search of four miners missing since a blast killed 25 colleagues.

Gov. Joe Manchin said crews entered the Upper Big Branch mine about 30 miles south of Charleston at 4:55 a.m. EDT.

"They are advancing," Manchin told an early morning news briefing. "They'll move as rapidly as they possibly can."

Rescuers had to wait to enter the mine until four ventilation shafts were drilled and dangerous methane gas and carbon monoxide levels dropped to safe levels.

Officials and anxious relatives were holding out hope that the miners somehow survived the explosion and escaped into airtight chambers with enough food, water and air to survive for up to four days.

Manchin emphasized on CBS' "The Early Show" that the rescue team would not turn back. "We're in total rescue mode," he said. "We pretty much know where they should be."

Manchin added, however, that if the rescue effort proved futile, the mission would change into one of a recovery effort, as per the families' wishes.

Authorities also wanted to recover 18 bodies of the known dead from the mine owned by Massey Energy Co.

Optimistically it would take two to three hours to reach the section where officials believe the last four might be. CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that the path to where the miners are thought to be trapped is believed clear. Debris from the powerful blast was not expected to present a significant challenge.

Officials hope three of the missing miners might be in the airtight chamber, with the fourt miner no more than 1,000 feet away, Axelrod reports.

Ventilation shafts that crews spent more than a day drilling allowed lethal carbon monoxide and highly explosive hydrogen and methane levels to drop in the mine shaft, some 1,000 feet below ground.

Chances were slim that any of the four still-missing miners survived, due to poisonous gases in the underground tunnels. As of late Wednesday, there had been no signs of life deep underground.

Stricklin said relatives of the miners backed the decision to hold off until it was safe.

Gov. Joe Manchin and others saw only a "sliver of hope" that the miners had survived.

"We've been working against long odds from day one," Manchin warned.

In the heart of coal country, about 300 people, many wearing the reflective orange stripes of the miners they love, walked silently through the small town of Whitesville in a candlelight vigil for both the dead and missing. They were not, for the most part, directly related to the miners at Upper Big Branch, but 34-year-old Anna West said they are all of the same brotherhood.

"It's a family of miners. It's not just who's Massey, who's Peabody ... they're all brothers," she said.

The federal mine agency appointed a team of investigators to look into the blast, which officials said may have been caused by a buildup of methane.

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The mine's owner, Massey Energy Co., has been repeatedly cited for problems with the system that vents methane and for allowing combustible dust to build up. On the day of the blast, MSHA cited the mine with two safety violations - one involving inadequate maps of escape routes, the other concerning an improper splice of electrical cable. However, Stricklin said the violations had nothing to do with the blast.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship has strongly defended the company's record and disputed accusations from miners that he puts coal profits ahead of safety.

In 2009, Upper Big Branch was cited 50 times for "unwarrantable failures." And 38 times inspectors wrote "ventilation violations" - a repeated sign the mine was failing to properly remove explosive gases, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Investigators suspect it was a buildup of methane gas that triggered Monday's blast.

Former mine safety official Celeste Monforton says it's clear that critical warnings were ignored.

"This is not an accident. This is not an accident," Monforton told Orr. Mining engineers dating back 100 years have understood the fatal mix of coal dust and methane and we know how to control those."

Family members, meanwhile, could do little but wait.

Alice Peters said she was told her 47-year-old son-in-law, Dean Jones, was among the missing, though Massey said it does not know which four miners might be alive.

Peters said Jones' wife, Gina, has been at the mine site since the explosion and would not leave. "She's not doing too good," Peters said. "They told them to go home because they weren't going to let the mine rescuers back in. They're still drilling."

More on the mine disaster:

Mining Company was Cited on Day of Blast
Miners' Families Cling to "Sliver of Hope"
Photos: W. Va. Mine Explosion
Coal Mine CEO Blankenship's Revealing Tweets
Mine CEO Doesn't Rule out Violations as Cause
W. Va. Coal Mine Blast: The Victims
List Of Recent Fatal U.S. Mine Disasters
In Coal Mines, Risk of Death Is Part of Life
Mines not Paying Fines a Familiar Story
Obama Offers "Deepest Condolences"
Gov.: "No Excuse" for Mine Safety Flaws
Eerie Statement from Miner Killed in Blast
Mining Company Previously Fined for Safety

Seven bodies were pulled out after the explosion, and two miners were hospitalized. Manchin said Wednesday that one was doing well and the other was in intensive care. Eighteen bodies remained in the mine, but emergency workers were able to identify only four before methane forced them out Monday.

During the drilling of the ventilation holes, the amount of methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide coming out of the mine was so high - the carbon monoxide was 280 times above safe levels - that ventilation had to be set up at the surface to protect the rescue workers, Stricklin said.

Miner William "Bob" Griffith's family was preparing for the worst. Griffith went to work Monday and never came home, said his brother, James Griffith, who also works at the mine. William Griffith's brother-in-law, Carl Acord, died in the explosion.

"In my honest opinion, if anyone else survives it, I will be surprised," James Griffith said.

Doug Griffith, another of William Griffith's brothers and also a miner, sat down with his family after getting a briefing on the rescue effort, said his wife, Cindi.

"He just said we really need to prepare for the worst," she said. "They don't feel like there's any hope."

The quality and quantity of coal produced at Upper Big Branch make the mine one of gems of Massey's operation. The mine produced more than 1.2 million tons of coal last year and uses the lowest-cost underground mining method, making it more profitable. The mine produces metallurgical coal that is used to make steel and sells for up to $200 a ton - more than double the price for the type of coal used by power plants.

The confirmed death toll of 25 was the highest in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 people died in a fire at a mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it will be the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since a 1970 explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Ky.

The family of 50-year-old Ricky Workman was told he was among those missing, said a niece, Tammy Cruz of Cleveland. Cruz said Workman had complained to family members about ventilation problems in the mine.

"He'd be complaining for weeks," Cruz said. "And he had told them, `Does somebody else have to die before you do something about this?' He knew this was coming."

Workman's family waited with other families in seclusion at the mine complex.

"Ricky's got a young soul," Cruz said. "He's a fighter. He's a smart guy. Hopefully he got to one of those safe places and they're going to pull him out alive."