posted
6 Miners Trapped in Collapsed Utah Mine; Initial Rescue Efforts Called a Failure
Doug Johnson, director of corporate services for Murray Energy Corp., talks about the six trapped coal miners at the entrance to the Crandall Canyon Mine on Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, northwest of Huntington, Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac) 08-07-2007 5:07 AM By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer
HUNTINGTON, Utah (Associated Press) -- Hundreds of rescuers struggled with falling rock and debris Monday in a desperate race to reach six coal miners trapped 1,500 feet below ground by a cave-in so powerful authorities questioned if it caused its own earthquake.
As the rescue stretched into the night, workers were unable to make significant progress and the initial effort was declared a failure.
"I'm very disappointed. That's one step backward," Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine, told reporters at an evening briefing.
More than 16 hours after the collapse, searchers had been unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were dead or alive. If they survived, Murray said, they could have enough air and water to last several days.
"They could have been struck by material and injured or killed, but we don't know that yet," he said.
Rescuers planned to spend the night bulldozing a road outside the mine to make way for a drilling rig that can punch holes large enough to improve ventilation and determine whether the men were alive, Murray said.
They also planned to continue drilling from inside and outside the mine, he said.
The mining crew was believed to be about four miles from the mine entrance. Rescuers were drilling into the mine vertically from the mountaintop and horizontally from the side, Murray said.
If they are able to open an old mine shaft, Murray said, rescuers believe they can get within 100 feet of where the men are trapped.
"The idea is to get a hole into where they are," Murray said. "They could be in a chamber 1,000 feet long or they could be dead. We just don't know right now."
About a mile from the mine's entrance, there was an all-day procession of trucks hauling heavy machinery headed toward the site to claw at rock and raw earth.
Relatives of the miners waited for news at a nearby senior center. Many of the family members don't speak English, so Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon hugged them, put her hands over her heart and then clasped them together to let them know she was praying for them, she said.
"Past experience tells us these things don't go very well," said Gordon, whose husband is a former miner.
Outside the senior center, Ariana Sanchez, 16, said her father Manuel Sanchez, 42, was among the trapped miners. She said she cried when her mother told her the news, and declined further comment. No details were immediately available about the other miners.
The mine uses a method called "retreat mining," in which pillars of coal are used to hold up an area of the mine's roof. When that area is completely mined, the company pulls the pillar and grabs the useful coal, causing an intentional collapse. Experts say it is one of the most dangerous mining methods.
Federal mine-safety inspectors, who have issued more than 300 citations against the mine since January 2004, were also on hand to help oversee the search.
Murray said no expense would be spared to save the men. The company had enlisted the help of 200 employees and four rescue crews, and brought in all available equipment from around the state.
The mine is built into a mountain in the rugged Manti-La Sal National Forest, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City, in a sparsely populated area.
By mid-afternoon, rescuers were within 1,700 feet of the miners' presumed location, Murray said. It was not known what kind of breathing equipment the miners had.
The collapse did not appear to be related to an explosion. University of Utah seismograph stations recorded seismic waves of 3.9 magnitude around early Monday in the area of the mine, causing speculation that a minor earthquake had caused the cave-in. Scientists later said the collapse at the mine had caused the disturbance, reported to authorities around 4 a.m. But by late afternoon, they said a natural earthquake could not be ruled out and more information was needed to conclusively determine what happened.
Murray said the earthquake's epicenter was a mile from the trapped miners.
"The whole problem has been caused by an earthquake," Murray angrily insisted.
Since the mid-1990s, at least a half-dozen other mine collapses have caused similar seismic waves, including a 1995 cave-in in southwestern Wyoming that caused readings as high as a magnitude 5.4.
Murray believed the miners have plenty of air because oxygen naturally leaks into the mine. The mine also is stocked with drinking water.
"I'm so hopeful for those guys. They should have lots of oxygen to breathe," said Mary Ann Wright, associate director for mining in the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.
"From not having heard that there's any type of fire, that's always good news. If they're trapped in a cavern area, there should be oxygen to breathe," Wright said.
Government mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the mine since January 2004, according to a quick analysis of federal Mine Safety and Health Administration online records. Of those, 116 were what the government considered "significant and substantial," meaning they are likely to cause injury.
The 325 safety violations is not unusual, said J. Davitt McAteer, former head of the MHSA and now vice president of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia.
"It's not perfect but it's certainly not bad," McAteer said. "It would be in the medium range."
In 2007, inspectors have issued 32 citations against the mine, 14 of them considered significant.
Last month, inspectors cited the mine for violating a rule requiring that at least two separate passageways be designated for escape in an emergency.
It was the third time in less than two years that the mine had been cited for the same problem, according to MSHA records. In 2005, MSHA ordered the mine owners to pay $963 for not having escapeways and the 2006 fine for the same problem was just $60.
Overall, the federal government has ordered the mine owner to pay nearly $152,000 in penalties for its 325 violations with many citations having no fines calculated yet. Since January, the mine owner has paid $130,678 in fines, according to MSHA records.
Asked about safety, Murray told reporters: "I believe we run a very safe coal mine. We've had an excellent record."
Gov. Jon Huntsman broke away from a wildfire forum in Boise, Idaho, to return to Utah.
"We're going to expend every resource we have and make every effort to make sure lives are put first and foremost," he said as he departed Boise.
The head of MSHA, Richard Stickler, said he would be at the site Tuesday.
Utah ranked 12th in coal production in 2006. It had 13 underground coal mines in 2005, the most recent statistics available, according to the Utah Geological Survey.
Emery County, the state's No. 2 coal-producer, also was the site of a fire that killed 27 people in the Wilburg mine in December 1984.
___
Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein and Brock Vergakis in Salt Lake City contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
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USA MINE CITED FOR LACK OF EMERGENCY PASSAGEWAYS Miners trapped in US coal mine collapse While one rescue effort has failed so far, officials remained hopeful that six Utah coal miners trapped underground at the Crandall Canyon mine are alive, and may be rescued over the next two days.
Author: Dorothy Kosich Posted: Tuesday , 07 Aug 2007
RENO, NV -
In the first western major coal mining accident since the enactment of the tough MINER safety act, six employees of GenWal's Crandall Canyon coal mine in Huntington Canyon, Utah remained trapped underground early Tuesday morning.
As of late Tuesday night, rescuers were focusing on 1,700 feet of tunnel between the rescuers and the area where the miners were last believed to be working. Rescue efforts have been slowed by falling rock and debris.
The mine is owned by Cleveland, Ohio-based Murray Energy, whose UtahAmerican subsidiary mines about 7 million tons of coal annually from federal coal lands in Carbon and Emery Counties in Utah.
Murray President and CEO Robert Murray heads a privately-owned company which operates 11 coal mines in Utah, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, employing 3,000 people, and yielding 32 million tons of high quality bituminous coal annually. The company claims to be the second largest U.S. producer of coal using the advanced longwall mining method. Murray Energy has been the operator of Crandall since 1995.
A former CEO of North American Coal Corp., Murray has also been a high profile opponent of global warming bills under consideration in the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, the United Mineworkers claimed in 2006 that two of Murray's Ohio mines have a less than stellar safety record.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press science writer Monday questioned the Crandall Canyon mine's use of retreat mining in which coal pillars are used to support an area of the mine's roof. When the area has been mined out, the company pulls the pillar and causes an intentional collapse. However, Utah American Energy President Bruce Hill insisted that the practice is safe and has "been done for the last 70 years."
While the Crandall Canyon mine collapse early Monday morning was originally believed to be caused by an earthquake, scientists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations suggested to the Salt Lake Tribune that the 3.9 seismic event recorded early Monday was actually the cave-in of the coal mine. However, the mine is near active faults where earthquakes happen. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake in the region shortly before 3 a.m. Monday.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration said it was believed that the miners were 1,500 feet underground about four miles from the mine entrance. Rescuers were within 2,500 feet of their presumed location, according to MSHA. Federal mine inspectors have issued 325 citations against the mine since January 2004, according to CNN. In 2007, inspectors issued 32 citations against the mine, 14 of them considered significant.
An examination by Mineweb of MSHA records show that MSHA's last regular inspection of Crandall took place on July 5th. During that visit, inspectors cited Genwall Resources for violating a rule requiring at least two separate passageways be designated for escape in an emergency, reportedly the third instance in less than two years that the mine has been cited for the same problem.
MSHA Chief Richard Stickler said he would be at the mine site today.
Robert Murray told reporters Monday that if the miners survived the cave-in, they should have enough air and water to last for several days. Murray said oxygen naturally leaks into the mine, which is also stocked with drinking water. As of Monday night, however, rescuers have been unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were dead or alive.
Along with the rescuers working inside the mine, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that a helicopter will help aim a large drill on the top of the mountain so it can drill down. Bulldozers are cutting roads for a second drill, while another drill is boring horizontally in the mine. Murray told the news media that any effort will take at least two days to reach the miners.
The six men, who have not yet been publicly identified, range in age from their 20s to late 40s. All were described by Murray as "family men." Their families, several of whom do not speak English, have been advised by Murray not to speak to the press.
"There's a very, very good chance that the men may not be in danger, other than they're entombed," Murray declared late Monday.
An ABC TV news report that that four survivors walked out through the front entrance from the 10-man crew working in the area. They have helped pinpoint the location of the remaining six men.
ABC said the mine has been cited seven times for not providing an emergency exit. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman told Reuters late Monday outside of the Crandall Mine that "You have six miners who could very well be alive. In fact, the experts tell us that they are and the rescue attempts are increasingly close to the cavern where they think they are located."
Huntsman said he would meet with the miners' families at an undisclosed location. "Hope is in order at this point. Heavy doses of hope," he said.
Emery County was also the site of a fire of Utah's biggest mining disaster, a fire in the Wilburg mine, which killed 27 people in December 1984.
Tough new mine safety laws were enacted last year after 12 coal miners died after being trapped in an underground explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia. However, congressional Democrats have insisted that the laws still should be strengthened and that MSHA should be given adequately resources for enforcing them.
U.S. mine health and safety legal expert Mark Savitt told Elko, Nevada miners in June that MSHA is responding to congressional demands for increased mine safety by "trying very hard to be more stringent." He said mining operators are beginning to see evidence of MSHA's stringent stance on the citations issued by the agency.
Savitt claimed that MSHA is responding to congressional demands for increased mine safety by "trying very hard to be more stringent."
"Congress is essentially counting citations and looking at dollar amounts" rather than allowing MSHA to encourage a health and safety environment that allows mining operators to use regulations are a strategy to drive people toward safer behavior at mines, Savitt asserted at the time.
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quote:The preliminary location and magnitude of today’s earthquake are consistent with the shock being a type of earthquake that is induced by underground coal mining. The general region of the earthquake’s epicenter is an area that has experienced a high level of mining-induced earthquake activity for many decades. The largest of past mining-induced earthquakes had magnitudes in the 3.5 to 4.2 range, which encompasses the size of today’s earthquake (3.9). On the basis of present evidence, however, the possibility that today’s shock was a natural earthquake cannot be ruled out. The broad region of central Utah experiences normal tectonic earthquakes in addition to mining-induced earthquakes. For example, in 1988 a magnitude 5.2 earthquake occurred 40 km southeast of today’s earthquake.
Seismologists have not yet determined how the earthquake of August 6 might be related to the occurrence of a collapse at the nearby Crandall Canyon coal mine that, as of midday August 6, had left six miners unaccounted for. The epicenter of the seismic event is close to the mine. We do not have an authoritative report of the time at which the collapse occurred. If the collapse occurred nearly simultaneously with the earthquake, we would consider it likely that the earthquake is the seismic signature of the collapse. At this point, more information - both from the mine and from more seismological analyses - will be needed to piece together cause and effect relations for today's earthquakes.
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...Once the device is in place, crews will set off dynamite, a sign to the stranded men to tap the ceiling with hammers, said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine.
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08-08-2007 3:56 AM By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer
HUNTINGTON, Utah (Associated Press) -- Seismic activity "totally shut down" efforts to reach six miners trapped below ground, causing a cave-in that wiped out all the work done in the past day, a mine executive said Tuesday.
"We are back to square one underground," said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp., owner of the Crandall Canyon mine.
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posted
reports say they are within 1000 ft of the miners. Should reach them in a couple days.
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"Only one miner has been identified. The men range from one miner with three weeks on the job to others with 10 years' experience, mine safety manager Bodee Allred said." http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/08/ap4001770.html
That's disturbing imo. Can't identify who is missing? management controls that far out of whack?
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quote:Originally posted by BooDog: "Only one miner has been identified. The men range from one miner with three weeks on the job to others with 10 years' experience, mine safety manager Bodee Allred said." http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/08/ap4001770.html
That's disturbing imo. Can't identify who is missing? management controls that far out of whack?
nope, i suspect there's illegals in there, and they are keeping it under wraps as long as they can...
sad that people might think that matters in a situation like this...
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posted
i was doing a little searching about immigrant miners...
there was a big brewhaha at smaller mining outfit a few years ago...
Immigrant miners protest unsafe conditions National Catholic Reporter, April 2, 2004 by Melissa Jones
Demanding safer working conditions, a small group of mostly Mexican coal miners faced off against a powerful family in Utah. Now, six months later, they are paying the price in lost wages and deepening poverty while state and federal regulatory agencies investigate the situation at a snail's pace.
About 75 miners claim they were locked out of CW Mining Co.'s mine in Huntington, Utah, Sept. 22, after they protested unsafe working conditions and the suspension of William Estrada, a United Mine Workers of America supporter who refused to sign what he said was an unfair disciplinary letter. Most of the protesting miners were Mexican immigrants who earned between $5.25 and $7 per hour working underground, with no health or retirement benefits. A lack of English skills and a slump in the coal mining industry kept most from seeking better jobs. As the conflict drags on, workers rely on support from community organizations, the Mine Workers union, a small group called Mormons for Equality and Social Justice, and the local Catholic mission.
that crap is just WRONG.... and is the main reason why i am for MUCH stronger laws against employers who hire illegals..
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last i heard.. since im a local is that 4 of them are hispanic. i really hope they find them alive. and i REALLY hope all the rumors are false about the retreat mining, and illegal workers etc.
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I hope they are on target and hear some signs they are going in the right direction. At this point hiding their names is a dishonor imo. even if there are a couple illegals in there. That can all be dealt with later.
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HUNTINGTON, Utah (CNN) -- Rescuers were expected to begin drilling a third hole Monday into the mountain encasing the Utah mine where six men have been trapped for more than a week, authorities said.
The move was announced hours after a camera lowered into the mine showed no signs of the trapped miners.
Authorities had hoped that the camera dropped into a roughly 9-inch hole would show the miners and that a microphone lowered into a smaller hole would pick up any sounds the miners might make.
The microphone picked up no noises and attempts to signal the miners elicited no responses. View photos from the rescue efforts »
The camera, which had to be cleaned and lowered back into the mine after its horizontal lens got dirty on the first attempt Saturday, showed a tool bag and a chain, both commonplace in mines.
The camera also showed a 5½-foot-high space that authorities said the miners could survive in if there were enough air to sustain them. However, the limited light prevented the camera from picking up images farther than 15 feet away, said Richard Stickler, head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Authorities plan to increase the lighting and use the camera again, he said.
"Rescue" missions generally refer to those in which victims are believed to be alive; "recovery" missions generally refer to those in which the victims are thought to be dead.
Murray Energy President and CEO Bob Murray said that it's "very possible" the miners are "very much alive."
"There are many ways that they could still be alive and that is the absolute fact," he said.
The third hole will extend 1,414 feet diagonally into the mine. The hole will be shorter than the previous two and will pierce a different section of the mine.
Moore told The Associated Press that drilling the third hole could take up to six days.
Murray previously said he believed he knew where the miners were located. Stickler said Sunday that authorities know the miners are in the working section of the mine, but they don't know precisely where.
Another team of rescuers, meanwhile, continues to work its way into the mine, a process that is still several days from completion.
Stickler told AP that the mine collapse blocked the route to the miners, who are estimated to be 2,000 feet from the nearest entrance. Rescuers have cleared about 580 feet of rubble, but are impeded by earth movements called "mountain bumps," Stickler told the wire service.
Friends and family have identified the trapped men as: Louis Alonso Hernandez, 23; Manuel Sanchez, 41; Kerry Allred, 57; Carlos Payan, 20s; Brandon Phillips, 24; and Don Erickson, 50.
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quote:Future of mine rescue unclear after three deaths
Chris Detrick
Digging, waiting View images of the rescue effort at the Utah mine, as well as loved ones waiting for word.
Cave-in at Utah mine kills 3 rescue workers Updated: 31 minutes ago HUNTINGTON, Utah - The search for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them.
It was a devastating turn for the families of the six men trapped in the Aug. 6 collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine and for the relatives of those trying to rescue them. It’s not known if the trapped miners are alive.
“It just feels like a really hard blow to swallow after all we’ve been through the last week and a half and everyone trying to hope in their own individual way,” Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon said in telephone interview Friday with CNN’s “American Morning.”
All rescue workers were evacuated from the mine Thursday evening and work underground was stopped. Asked if the search would be suspended, “that’s something to be determined,” said Rich Kulczewski, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesman.
‘Mountain bump’ The cave-in at 6:39 p.m. was believed to be caused by what seismologists call a “mountain bump,” in which shifting ground forces chunks of rock from the walls. Seismologists say such a bump caused the Aug. 6 cave-in that trapped the six men more than three miles inside the central Utah mine.
The force from the bump registered a 1.6 at the University of Utah seismograph stations in Salt Lake City, said university spokesman Lee Siegel. It was the 20th reading at the university since the original collapse, which registered a 3.9 on Aug. 6.
“These events seem to be related to ongoing settling of the rock mass following the main event,” Siegel said Friday morning. “I don’t think I’m going too far to say that this mountain is collapsing in slow motion.”
The initial collapse led to the frenetic effort by rescuers to dig through the mine toward the men and drill narrow holes atop the mountain in an attempt to learn their whereabouts and perhaps drop food and water.
It was not immediately clear where the rescuers were working or what they were doing when Thursday’s bump occurred.
Slow going for rescuers Underground, rescuers had advanced only 826 feet in nine days. Before Thursday’s cave-in, workers still had about 1,200 feet to go to reach the area where they believe the trapped men had been working.
Mining officials said conditions in the mine were treacherous, and they were frequently forced to halt digging because of seismic activity.
A day after the initial collapse, the rescuers were pushed back 300 feet when a bump shook the mountain and filled the tunnel with rubble.
The digging had been set back Wednesday night, when a coal excavating machine was half buried by rubble by seismic shaking. Another mountain bump interrupted work briefly Thursday morning.
“The seismic activity underground has just been relentless. The mountain is still alive, the mountain is still moving and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive toward these trapped miners,” said Bob Murray, chief of Murray Energy Corp., the co-owner and operator of the Crandall Canyon mine.
On top of the mountain, rescuers were drilling a fourth hole on Thursday, aiming for a spot where devices called “geophones” had detected mysterious vibrations in the mountain. Both Kulczewski, the Labor Department spokesman, and Gordon, the mayor, said they believed that work continued after the accident.
“They’re looking right now at finishing the drilling on the fourth hole, going through, and as I understood, that they’re going to just be drilling the holes and ... putting the camera through and looking at these different ways to get in there, maybe through the top,” Gordon told CNN. “But I don’t think that they’re going to be doing any mining down in the bottom again.”
No details were available early Friday about the official cause of the rescuers’ deaths.
One of the killed workers was an inspector for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, agency spokesman Dirk Fillpot said. He did not know his name or have information about the other victims.
Injuries to the survivors ranged from cuts and scrapes to head and chest trauma.
Six of the injured were taken to Castleview Hospital in Price. One rescuer died there, one was airlifted to a Provo hospital, and three were treated overnight and released Friday morning, said Jeff Manley, the hospital’s chief executive. A sixth was still being treated, in serious condition with back injuries.
The second dead worker passed away at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, hospital spokeswoman Janet Frank said. Another worker there was in serious condition with head trauma but was alert, she said.
The third death was confirmed by Kulczewski, the Labor Department spokesman.
Will underground tunneling resume? Gov. Jon Huntsman flew to the hospital in Price early Friday and planned to meet with mine safety officials later in the day to discuss the future of the rescue operation.
Huntsman said he did not want underground tunneling to resume, but that the decision rested with the MSHA.
“We’re pushing for that to cease right now unless MSHA and others can guarantee that it can continue safely,” he said. “Whatever happens, we’re going to want to ensure that it is done safely and that may take a little while.
“We as a state don’t want any more injuries,” he added. “We’ve had enough.”
Before the latest cave-in, officials said the third of three holes drilled reached an intact chamber with potentially breathable air.
Video images were obscured by water running down that bore hole, but officials said they could see beyond it to an undamaged chamber in the rear of the mine. It yielded no sign the miners had been there.
Murray said it would take at least two days for the latest drill to reach its target, in an area where a seismic listening device detected a “noise” or vibration in 1.5-second increments and lasting for five minutes. The drilling began Thursday.
Officials say it’s impossible to know what caused the vibrations and clarified the limits of the technology.
The geophone can pinpoint the direction of the source of the disturbance, but it can’t tell whether it came from within the mine, the layers of rock above the mine or from the mountain’s surface, said MSHA chief Richard Stickler.
The “noise,” a term he used a day before, wasn’t anything officials could hear, Stickler said. “Really, it’s not sounds but vibrations.”
Officials stressed that the motion picked up by the geophones could be unrelated to the mine, even as they drilled the new hole in an effort to uncover the source of it.
Rich in mines and tragedies Central Utah has long been rich not just in coal deposits, but also the great fortunes and deep despair that come with pulling it from the ground.
Monuments and museums to past accidents and tragedies mark the roads and towns in the center of the state.
The list of accidents stretches back at least to May 1900, when 200 men were killed by an explosion in the Winter Quarters Mine, one of the worst mining accidents in U.S. history.
In 1924, 172 men died in a series of explosions or of carbon monoxide poisoning at a mine in Castle Gate. In 1984, a fire in the Wilberg Mine killed 26 men and one woman.
The mines have been a source of work for immigrants for more than a century. Today, many miners are from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
Spanish-language television crews are among the media that have descended on the area. According to mine officials, the six miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine include three Hispanics.
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Good God this gets worse every time I look at the news I really feel for those folks I hope the nobody in the rescue party died for nothing.
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it's pretty discouraging... i heard early this week that some of the "rescue miners" were refusing to go down into the mine... the mine owner was answering a press question, and he was very defensive of the miners that didn't want to "go down" on the other hand, everybody wants to rescue the trapped miners if possible... you can't blame the miners or the owner for trying... the guys that died today are heroes IMO...
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I can't say that I blame the folks that do not want to go down into the mine. At this point, it seems highly unlikely that anyone is left alive, and more deaths are being caused by the rescue efforts.
It's a sad and tragic situation, but endangering more people isn't going to help if none of the trapped miners are alive anyhow.
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posted
It is an awful sad tragedy!! I do feel that it is possible that the men or at least some of them may be alive still. I agree that going in through the mountain is much too risky now, although I am glad they are close to finishing the fourth drilling hole from above. If they do find indications of life still, hopefully they will be able to come from above with a rescue mission. I really feel for the families of the miners entrapped and the rescuers as well...
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Heard they are calling the rescue off. Not even talking about a slower recovery mission from the way it sounded. It's just done.
So sad.
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V.P. of Mine Company: Missing Miners May Not be Found August 19th, 2007 * 10:30pm VIDEO: Sunday Afternoon Mine Briefing...
KSL Team Coverage
On the bleakest day yet in the search for six missing miners, their relatives marched toward news cameras and denounced the way the rescue effort was handled. Mining officials all but acknowledged today the six men are dead and their bodies might never be recovered, but the families don't accept that.
The latest drill hole found unbreathable air, and the mine continues to disintegrate, leaving only a shred of hope the men are alive. But angry families say the best rescue method hasn't even been tried.
The families have been largely silent until tonight, but this morning they heard the most downbeat assessment yet from mining officials, and they aren't ready to believe what they were told: that hope is almost entirely gone.
Family members of the trapped miners march toward the media to make a statement against mine officials. Rob Moore, Vice President of Murray Energy Corp., said, "It is disappointing and it's likely that these miners may not be found."
The first harsh reality was deep in the ground at the bottom of the 4th drill hole, where air quality is bad.
Richard Stickler, with the Mine Safety & Health Admin., told reporters, "The oxygen level would not support life."
They're starting to drill a fifth hole, but it offers only the slightest wisp of hope.
"It's likely that we'll see similar results there, but we can't say that with certainty," Moore added.
Another harsh reality could mean Kerry Allred, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Don Erickson, Manuel Sanchez and Brandon Phillips will be entombed in the mine forever. The mine is on the move, the same type of movement that proved fatal for three rescue miners. The coal seam is bumping and shifting under the weight of the mountain above, as coal pillars collapse like dominoes.
"And that process seems to be migrating out from the original area where the bump activity started," Stickler said.
Experts are trying to devise a safe way to resume an underground rescue, but officials cast serious doubt on it.
Moore said, "The risk is too great and we just simply cannot take the unacceptable risk and put additional lives in harm's way."
Sunday evening families of the six miners marched from a church across a highway to blast the rescue planners.
Sonny Olsen, spokesmen for families, said, "We have not lost hope that our loved ones are still alive and waiting to be rescued."
Olsen said they've asked since Day One for a rescue using a capsule lowered into a much larger drill hole. The technique was used successfully in a 2002 Pennsylvania rescue. The families say mining officials have stood around, scratched their heads and failed the families.
"The families feel that the rescue capsule is the safest and most effective method to rescue their loved ones. If the rescue is not possible, the capsule is the only method to recover our loved ones so they can have a proper burial," Olsen said.
Mining officials have never ruled out a capsule rescue, but they have given it little support. In Utah it would be vastly more challenging than in Pennsylvania because the mine here is so deep and in such rugged terrain.
One of the three men killed in Thursday night's cave in was 48-year-old Dale Black. Today his family gathered to remember him.
Dale was one of 10 kids. His mother told Eyewitness News that Dale was always full of life and a pleasure to be around. "A nice kid though, a lot of fun, willing to help, just a good son," she said.
Dale Black leaves behind a wife and two children. Funeral services for Dale will be held this Tuesday in Huntington.
Twenty-nine-year-old Brandon Kimber and 53-year-old Gary Jensen were also killed while trying to rescue their colleagues Thursday night. Funeral services for Gary Jensen will be held Wednesday in Salina. We've heard no word yet on services for Kimber.
-------------------- "Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over." Herbert Hoover 1930 Posts: 678 | From: currently in hiding due to investigation | Registered: Oct 2004
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AP Interview: Utah Mine Boss Defends Search for Miners; 5th Bore Hole Breaks Through Into Mine
Robert Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., speaks during an interview with an Associated Press reporter in his office at the Crandall Canyon Mine, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007, in Huntington, Utah. Murray said Wednesday he is hurt by critics who say he ran an unsafe mine and wasn't doing enough to find six missing miners trapped deep underground. He also said he emotionally "came apart" after a second cave-in killed three rescuers. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 08-22-2007 4:22 PM By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer
HUNTINGTON, Utah (Associated Press) -- Coal mine boss Bob Murray said Wednesday he is hurt by critics who say he ran an unsafe mine and wasn't doing enough to find six missing miners trapped deep underground. He also said he emotionally "came apart" after a second cave-in killed three rescuers.
"I didn't desert anybody," Murray told The Associated Press in the middle-of-the-night phone call. "I've been living on this mountain every day, living in a little trailer."
Later Wednesday, he told the AP that the fifth narrow hole being drilled in the side of the mountain to try to locate the miners had broken through. Searchers planned to bang on a drill bit and wait for a response, take air readings, and lower a microphone and camera. Officials said they expect the results to be the same as from the four previous tries: no signs of life.
If searchers fail to find any sign of life, the rescue effort might be called off.
If that happens, the miners' family members, who have clung to the hope that the men would be found alive, will finally start "to grieve and to heal," said Sonny J. Olsen, an attorney acting as spokesman for the families.
Murray, 67, did not comment on the possibility.
During the early phone call, he had described the scene of the second collapse inside the mine that killed the three rescue workers and injured six others last Thursday and how it affected him.
He said he rushed into the mine in his street clothes and began digging out the men, buried under five feet of coal, with his bare hands. "I never hesitated to go in there. I was the first man in and the last man out," he said.
Murray, who has been a target of families' anger over the suspended search for the missing miners, said he later dropped out of a debriefing with federal officials and began wandering around the mine yard in the moonlight, reliving the collapse. He said he broke down.
"I came apart," he said. "I was under a doctor's care for a couple days."
Murray spoke bitterly of the United Mine Workers of America, which has called his company callous for planning to resume mining at other parts of 5,000-acre Crandall Canyon.
"They're twisting it all around to discredit me and my company," he said during the 12-minute phone call.
Later Wednesday, he said he might resume mining in other parts of the mine, but not in the area where the miners are trapped.
"Had I known that this evil mountain, this alive mountain, would do what it did, I would never have sent the miners in here," he said. "I'll never go near that mountain again. It's alive and it's evil."
After the first collapse on Aug. 6, Murray became the public face of the rescue effort, saying repeatedly that the men could have survived and he would bring them home, alive or dead. But he retreated from that view after the deaths of the rescue workers.
He re-emerged Monday to announce that the trapped miners would likely remain entombed in the Crandall Canyon mine.
With the trapped miners all but left for dead 1,500 feet deep inside the crumbling mountain, critics are saying the mine was a disaster waiting to happen and pointing fingers at Murray Energy Corp. and the federal government as the agents of the tragedy.
Families and friends vented their frustration at the mine's owner and questioned whether it was too dangerous to be working there.
At a funeral Tuesday for one of the rescue workers who died, a friend of one of the trapped miners confronted Murray and accused him of skimping on the rescue efforts. He then handed Murray a dollar bill.
"This is just to help you out so you don't kill him," the man said.
Murray's head snapped back as if slapped. When the man wouldn't take back the bill, Murray threw the money on the ground. "I'll tell you what, son, you need to find out about the Lord," Murray said.
It was an emotional exchange with an owner who had insisted since the collapse that the rescue of the miners was his top priority. And it revealed more than just the frustration of people in this mining community in central Utah's coal belt, where most still speak in whispers when criticizing the officials whose businesses pay their bills.
Miners' advocates accuse the Mine Safety and Health Administration of being too accommodating to the industry at the expense of safety. They also say MSHA was too quick to approve the mining plan at Crandall Canyon despite concerns that it was too dangerous for mining to continue when Murray bought it a year ago.
"No one took the time to see that it was a recipe for disaster," Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, said Tuesday of the nonunion mine.
In question is the decision to allow Crandall Canyon's operators to mine between two sections that had already been excavated using a mining technique that causes the roof to collapse.
In that middle section, the mine was cut like a city block, leaving pillars of coal holding up the mountain above. MSHA approved a plan allowing the operators to pull out the pillars, a practice called "retreat mining," which causes deliberate, controlled roof cave-ins.
Experts think any investigation will focus on why MSHA agreed to that plan.
Those conditions are so unstable, some companies will leave behind the last of the coal rather than risk lives trying to pull additional pillars, experts have said.
In addition to the questions about structure, experts say that the operators and MSHA should have been aware that deep mines such as Crandall Canyon are prone to "bumps" _ an unpredictable and dangerous phenomenon that happens when settling layers of earth bear down on the walls of a coal mine. The force can cause pillars to fail, turning chunks of coal into deadly missiles.
The Aug. 6 cave-in that trapped the men is believed to have been caused by a mountain bump. Since then, there have been several other bumps, including one last week that killed the rescue workers, injured six others and led MSHA to call off efforts to dig underground to the six trapped miners.
In March, a bump on the northern wall of the mine caused so much damage, operators abandoned it in favor of mining on the southern wall. MSHA approved the request to conduct retreat mining there in June.
The United Mine Workers on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into the mine, the collapse and the rescue efforts. Gov. Jon Huntsman wants MSHA to immediately inspect two Murray Energy mines in neighboring Carbon County.
Since his brother Kerry Allred went missing in the Crandall Canyon mine, Steve Allred said he has received a slew of phone calls from people who said mine conditions were unsafe.
"They tell me that they knew people that was very, very concerned about the conditions in that mine, the bounces, everything," he said.
Allred said his brother had expressed some concern, but added: "There is concern no matter which mine you are in."
He said miners have to shut out those thoughts to work underground. "If you don't, you're not going to survive as a miner," Allred said.
-------------------- All post are my opinion. Do your own DD. Who's clicking your buy/sell button!? Posts: 7800 | From: Virginia | Registered: May 2006
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Scientist made first 911 call about mine August 27, 2007 By JENNIFER DOBNER AND CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writers
quote:HUNTINGTON, Utah - A seismologist who detected ground tremors was the first to notify authorities of the cave-in that trapped six miners, even before mine officials called for an ambulance, according to 911 recordings. University of Utah seismologist Walter Arabasz made his call about a potential problem at the Crandall Canyon mine early on Aug. 6, four minutes before mine officials made their call.
The 911 tapes obtained Monday by The Associated Press showed that from the earliest moments scientists suspected the shaking came from a mine collapse, not a natural earthquake, as mine co-owner Bob Murray has maintained throughout the ordeal that has entered its fourth week.
"Just from the general character of the seismic event, it looks like it might be a coal-mining event," Arabasz said on the tapes.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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Did changes in Crandall Canyon mining plan boost cave-in risks? August 22, 2007 By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
quote:Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August.
But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray's assertion, and show that Murray's company sought and received approval from federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy.
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that, after Murray acquired a 50 percent ownership in the mine on Aug. 9, 2006, his company repeatedly petitioned the agency to allow coal to be extracted from the north and south barriers - thick walls of coal that run on both sides of the main tunnels and help hold up the mine.
That stands in stark contrast to statements Murray made Monday asserting that his company's mine plan, and that of the previous owner, were one and the same.
"Some have incorrectly reported that after I bought the mine I changed the mining plan. That is not correct," Murray said. He said the mining plan was developed by its previous owners, Andalex Resources, in conjunction with the Colorado mining engineering consultant Agapito Associates and approved by MSHA.
Documents on file with the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining show Andalex had previously decided not to mine those barriers, determining it posed a risk to worker safety.
"Although maximum recovery is an important design criteria, other considerations must be looked at in the final analysis in the extraction of coal. These factors consider the insurance of protection of personnel and the environment," the company wrote in April 2005. "Solid coal barriers will be left to protect main entries from mined out panels and to guarantee stability of the main entries for the life of the mine."
In the Crandall Canyon mine, sprawling sections to the north and south of the main tunnel had been longwalled, where coal was cut out leaving behind nothing but rubble and no roof support. That creates pressures on the main tunnel that the barriers are designed to help manage.
It was those barriers that Murray's company sought to mine when it asked MSHA to approve a change to the mine plan on Nov. 11, 2006. MSHA officials spent just seven business days reviewing the request before approving the mining in the north barrier.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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