The families of two men who died when fire swept through a West Virginia mine in January sued both the company that owned it and the firm's president, citing "a long history of negligence, hostility and/or reckless and wanton indifference to labor safety and working conditions."

Investigators said the blaze broke out along a poorly maintained coal conveyor belt at the Aracoma Coal Co.'s Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County. The mine is owned by Massey Energy.

Two miners, Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield, 46, died when smoke from the fire passed through gaps in a ventilation wall designed to prevent good and bad air from mixing. The pair became lost as they and co-workers tried to flee the mine.

State and federal investigators later found safety violations, including missing ventilation walls, an unpowered fire alarm and sprinkler and hose systems that lacked water.

West Virginia authorities later moved to revoke the mining licenses of five managers at the mine and to suspend the licenses of two others. The U.S. attorney in Charleston is conducting a criminal investigation into the fire.

The lawsuit filed yesterday in West Virginia Circuit Court for Logan County on behalf of Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield, the miners' widows, says the company and its president and CEO, Don Blankenship, were grossly negligent. The women are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

The complaint accuses Massey and Mr. Blankenship of a management approach "beyond the bounds of decency."

A West Virginia state report last month said several "stoppings" -- walls intended to keep fresh air from mixing with exhaust -- were missing at the time of the fire, causing a cloud of smoke to wash over a crew of miners as they tried to escape.

The investigation also discovered that a required sprinkler system over the coal belt line had no water, nor did the outlets for adjacent fire hoses.

Federal prosecutors are looking into the handling of the emergency, including allegations that someone at the mine attempted to erase fire alarm data from the mine's computer system. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration expects to issue a report on its own probe sometime next year.

Yesterday's filing, by Pittsburgh lawyer Bruce Stanley and Gilbert, W.Va., lawyer Tonya L. Hatfield (no relation to miner Ellis Hatfield) takes particular aim at Mr. Blankenship, citing an Oct. 19, 2005, memorandum in which he advised mine superintendents to ignore requests "to do anything other than run coal." The memo, which mentioned in-mine construction and the installation of "overcasts" -- which circulate air through mines -- was cited during a state investigation by Alma Mine foreman Don Hagy.

The complaint says "he believed the message was that the Alma Mine needed to produce more coal and not slow production in order to perform safety and construction projects." The court filing accuses Mr. Blankenship of "personally engendering a corporate attitude of indifference and hostility towards safety measures which stood in the way of profit."

Massey last night issued a statement by Mr. Blankenship.

"Massey Energy and its members continue to grieve the loss of Don Bragg and Elvis Hatfield," the statement said. "We disagree with the false allegations made in the suit, but our thoughts remain with the families and our focus will continue to be on efforts to make mining safer."