News of the mine explosion in Montcoal, West Virginia has dominated headlines all week. The explosion was on Monday. Four days later, several men trapped in the mine at the time of the explosion are still unaccounted for.

UNP author Susan Resnick has been following the news of the disaster, rescue efforts, and stories of the victims and their families especially closely. Resnick is the author of Goodbye Wifes and Daughters, published in March, which tells the story of another mine disaster, in Bearcreek, Montana, in 1943.

Seventy five miners died as a result of the explosion in Bearcreek’s Smith mine, where known safety violations had been ignored in the name of increasing production for the war. As Resnick has followed the news of the Montcoal explosion, she’s been most struck by the similarities between the two explosions, even though they’re separated by more than 60 years.

“Another year, another group of men killed in a coal mine. You already know the story, because it rarely changes,” Resnick wrote in an op-ed for the Boston Globe earlier this week.  “Inspectors discover violations. Mine operators ignore them. Miners work through the danger because they need to make a living. Gas builds up and explodes. Some men die instantly from the force of the blast, and some die from the carbon monoxide. There are always a few unaccounted for or trapped, and those mysteries keep everyone’s hope alive for a while. Then, usually, they die, too.”

You can read the full story here. AOL News also interviewed Sue about how two mine disasters so many years apart can be so similar. That story is here.