BUCKHANNON, W.Va. -- In the six months since her father died, Amber Helms had come to terms with the idea that he was killed instantly by the violent blast that trapped 12 of his fellow miners deep inside the Sago Mine.

Not until yesterday, after she joined other relatives of those miners to hear results of the state's investigation of the explosion, did Miss Helms learn that her father's emergency breathing pack had been jammed shut so tightly that investigators used a hacksaw to open it.

She wants to believe that her father, mine fire boss Terry Helms, 50, was spared the anguish suffered by 11 other miners who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while they waited for rescuers. Yesterday came a new torment: the thought that her father might have died after briefly struggling to save himself with an air pack that wouldn't open.

"I just read this today and it sets me back a little. Now, I don't know ...,'' Miss Helms said, her voice trailing. She had just heard West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III and his special assistant, J. Davitt McAteer, review findings and recommendations that emerged from the investigation.

"I just found out about this and it's really unsettling,'' said Miss Helms, a tiny gold miner's pick-and-shovel brooch pinned to her blue blouse.

"My initial thought was that he didn't have a chance to grab it, but now [I know] if he had, he couldn't have used it. I know he didn't last very long, but still ... "

Like other relatives, Miss Helms said she also wonders how long it will take for state and federal mining officials to implement safety and communications improvements recommended in the report.

Miss Helms said she is intent on pushing for changes in mining regulations that would ban the use of dense foam Omega Blocks to seal off unused areas of mines, as was done at Sago. She also wants to see current seals that use those blocks strengthened and new mine seals held to a higher blast-resistance standard.

Miss Helms said she believed that International Coal Group, which owns the Sago Mine, used Omega Blocks to seal off the area where the blast occurred because they were less expensive than other building materials.

"[At Sago], 10 of the seals blew out,'' she said. "My dad could be alive if they all hadn't blown out, or if [mine owner] ICG hadn't used Omega Blocks. That hurts. I don't believe ICG did all it could to prevent this."

Some relatives said they wanted to mull over the contents of Mr. McAteer's 97-page report before commenting on it. Others looked on during a news conference yesterday at which Mr. McAteer released the report, then stepped up to the microphone to demand that its recommendations be given the force of law.

"I just want to express that I'm angry and upset. This system failed my father," said Peggy Cohen, daughter of miner Fred G. Ware Jr., referring to a recommendation that calls for elimination of obsolete hard hat stickers that instruct miners to barricade themselves and pound on roof bolts to signal their location to rescuers.

The sole survivor at Sago, Randal McCloy Jr., told investigators that the miners took turns pounding on roof bolts to signal to seismographic equipment that they mistakenly believed would be placed above ground to find them. Mr. McAteer yesterday referred to that equipment as "1970s technology'' and said it wasn't used at Sago because it would have taken hours to set up.

Mrs. Cohen also questioned why her father did not have access to a rescue chamber similar to the one installed in the 1970s in another local mine.

"My father's [breathing pack] was taped together,'' said Mrs. Cohen, who wore a T-shirt printed with a cross and the names of her father and the men who died with him. Fred Ware, she said, used 10 to 20 percent of the oxygen available in the pack.

"My father asphyxiated,'' she said.

Flanking her was Pam Campbell, sister-in-law of miner Marty Bennett, 51, who said she told Gov. Manchin she would hold him accountable unless all the recommendations in the report are enacted in West Virginia.

"Every recommendation in this report is needed,'' she said. "If these had been in place on Jan. 2, these men would not have died."

Mrs. Campbell said she and her relatives were particularly upset to have learned earlier this year from Mr. McCloy that some miners could not get their breathing devices to work while deadly carbon monoxide gas was spreading through the mine.

They also learned that only 25 to 30 percent of the oxygen in Mr. Bennett's pack had been used, she said, apparently because he couldn't draw out the rest.

Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration officials later said tests on the four devices showed they were functioning and that they hadn't determined why miners said they could not get sufficient oxygen from them. But miner Jesse Jones carried a pack that had passed its expiration date, and six others had packs that were nearing their expiration date.

"We have to get rid of these [packs]. They just sat there and waited to die," she said.

Mr. McCloy, 27, who spent nearly three months in hospitals recovering from multiple organ and brain injuries, and his wife, Anna, attended yesterday's private family meeting with Gov. Manchin and Mr. McAteer but left immediately after it ended.

A spokeswoman for Mr. McCloy later said he was pleased to have provided investigators with information in the report and believed it contained "valuable recommendations.''

But Mr. McCloy also believes the report "raises significant questions that need to be answered and addressed in order to truly protect coal miners," spokeswoman Aly Goodwin Gregg said. Mr. and Mrs. McCloy remain saddened that it took the deaths of miners at Sago and in other accidents this year to spur calls for mining reforms, she said.