The Jim Walter Resources No. 5 Mine, also known as the Blue Creek No. 5, operated deep in the coal seams of Tuscaloosa County. On the afternoon of September 23, miners were working more than 2,000 feet below the surface, bolstering deteriorating roof and rib areas in the No. 4 section. At 5:15 p.m., a section of roof collapsed. The cave-in released trapped methane, and the gas found an ignition source, likely electrical equipment still energized in the area. The first explosion tore through the section. Miners on the surface received word of the blast and began organizing a response. Within minutes, fellow miners from other sections rushed toward the disaster zone through debris and reversed airflow, determined to reach their injured colleagues before it was too late.

The rescuers never had a chance. Approximately 45 minutes after the first explosion, a second, larger blast ripped through the same section of the mine. Several of the men killed in the disaster were not victims of the initial collapse but volunteer rescuers who had entered the mine to help. The double tragedy compounded the horror: miners who might have survived had the rescue been delayed were instead consumed by the second wave. Raymond Ashworth was brought to the surface alive at 11:30 p.m. and airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, but he died the following day. Rescue teams tried to reach the remaining twelve miners through the night, but fires and methane concentrations made conditions too dangerous. It took until November 8, more than six weeks, to recover all twelve bodies from the mine.

The dead were Gaston Adams Jr., Raymond Ashworth, Nelson Banks, David Blevins, Clarence "Bit" Boyd, Wendell Johnson, John Knox, Dennis Mobley, Charles Nail, Joe Riggs, Charles Smith, Joe Sorah, and Terry Stewart. Fifteen hundred people attended their funeral. In a community built on coal, these were fathers, neighbors, church members, and union brothers. The Mine Safety and Health Administration investigation concluded that both explosions were probably ignited by electrical equipment in intake air entries. MSHA initially fined Jim Walter Resources $435,000 for safety violations. Subsequent court proceedings reduced the penalty to $5,000, a sum that worked out to roughly $385 per dead miner. The disparity between the initial fine and the final amount became a rallying point for mine safety advocates.

The Brookwood disaster, combined with the 2006 Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia that killed twelve miners, spurred Congress to act. The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, known as the MINER Act, established the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grants Program, which funds education, training, and safety improvements at mines across the country. The grants program bears the names of both disasters as a permanent reminder of the cost of inadequate oversight. The No. 5 Mine shaft was closed in 2006. Today, the surface above the mine in Brookwood shows little trace of what happened 2,000 feet below. But every September, miners and their families gather to remember the thirteen men who went underground on a Sunday afternoon and never came home.