A Massey Energy subsidiary has agreed to pay $4.2 million in connection with the 2006 Logan County mine fire that killed two coal miners at Aracoma Coal's Alma Number One Mine.

It is the largest financial settlement in the coal industry's history.

The widows of Don Bragg and Elvis Hatfield were on hand as U.S. Attorney Chuck Miller announced the plea agreement with Aracoma Coal on Tuesday morning in Charleston.

"Coal mining is an inherently dangerous business but, when companies ignore safety standards, it becomes more than inherently dangerous, it becomes imminently dangerous," Miller says.

The company has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges of willfully violating mandatory safety standards leading to the deaths of the two miners.  That's part of the ten count information the U.S. Attorney has filed.  The company is pleading guilty to not have an adequate escapeway, not training miners on how to react in such an emergency and lying about that nonexistent training. 

The fine for those criminal violations is $2.5 million.

The company will also pay $1.7 million in a separate civil settlement for citations issued to Aracoma for violations of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act.

"We hope that this prosecution and the significant fines associated with the resolution of this case will tell other coal operators that similar conduct will not be tolerated and, if we discover violations such as this, we'll prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law," Miller says.

As part of the plea agreement, Aracoma Coal admits that its employees removed two permanent ventilation controls in part of the mine in late 2005 to allow the installation of a piece of electrical equipment and to improve ventilation in area containing electrical equipment which had been overheating.

Aracoma admits that the ventilation controls, the stoppings, were not replaced before the fire on January 19, 2006.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says "Because of Aracoma's failure to replace the ventilation controls and other safety failures, the ability of 12 miners to escape the fire was significantly impaired due to heavy smoke in the primary escapeway from the fire."  Bragg and Hatfield became separated from their fellow miners in the heavy smoke and were killed in that hearing.

No plea hearing date on the criminal charges has been scheduled.

The investigation does continue.  Miller says there is the possibility charges could be filed against individuals in connection with the mine fire.