West Virginia’s deadliest coal mine disasters include the Fairmont Coal Company’s Monongah No. 6 and No. 8 mines at Monongah, where explosions at 10:20 a.m. on December 6, 1907, ripped through the connected mines, shook the earth as far as 8 miles away, shattered buildings and pavement, hurled people and horses to the ground, knocked streetcars off their rails, and killed 362 men and boys in the worst mine disaster in the United States; the New River Collieries Company’s Eccles No. 5 and No. 6 mines at Eccles, where on April 28, 1914, a miner in No. 5 blew through a coal barrier to shorten the distance between working areas, disrupting ventilation and allowing methane to accumulate until another miner’s open flame ignited the gas, killing all 174 men in No. 5 and 9 men in connected No. 6, making it West Virginia’s second-worst mine disaster; Consolidation Coal Company’s Consol No. 9 mine near Farmington and Mannington, where a gas and dust explosion on November 20, 1968, sent black smoke, red flames, rock, and debris from the pit opening, 21 miners escaped, 78 died, the mine was sealed after nine days, 19 miners were never recovered, and the disaster helped bring about the 1969 federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act; and the International Coal Group’s Sago mine near Buckhannon, where an explosion on January 2, 2006, killed 12 men, with one worker dying in the initial methane blast, 11 more dead by the time rescuers reached them 41 hours later, only one miner surviving, false reports of 12 survivors spreading to families and news agencies, and later conclusions holding that lightning likely ignited methane inside the mine.