January 4, 2026 - A dozen West Virginians lost their lives in one of the state’s worst coal mining disasters 20 years ago.

The Sago Mine disaster would serve as a catalyst for changes in mine safety law, but its unclear if some of those changes will survive budget cuts by the current administration. 

On Jan. 2, 2006, an explosion apparently caused by a lightning strike hit the Sago Mine in Upshur County, leaving 13 miners trapped underground.

Evidence that most of the miners had been able to move after the explosion and collapse kept hope alive as the search stretched into days.

Then it seemed as if the miracle had happened.

A misinterpretation of a garbled radio transmission from the mine indicated the miners had survived. It reached family members waiting at a nearby church before the information was confirmed.

The reality was the initial blast had killed one person, and of the dozen who were trapped, only Randal McCloy was alive.

Eyewitness News spoke with former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin on the somber anniversary. Manchin was serving as West Virginia's governor when the disaster occurred.

"We had to give the horrible news that only one survived. I imagine blood-curdling screams from that church again and all of the families," Manchin said. "Then they called out the one who survived and you can imagine that the rest of the 11 families were beside themselves. It was a horrible, horrible situation but it was a human error."

Lessons learned at Sago and another mine accident at Aracoma led to the federal MINER Act, which improved emergency response and communication. It also required shelters with extra oxygen and lifelines.

The act also established the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grants Program. It's future funding is uncertain.

"The only thing I'm saying to President Trump right now, I would ask him [to] think about all the sacrifices that made for the changes we made,” Manchin said. “Make sure you don't cut back on MSHA, safety conditions, silica mining as far as Black Lung and all of the things that they're cutting back now. There is no person that should ever go to work and not expect to come home safe."

The mine disaster is marked by a memorial at the Sago Baptist Church.

Last year saw six coal miners die in West Virginia, the most of any state.