More tragedy in Utah

[Steff]

Another cave in has killed 3 of the rescue workers trying to get to the miners.

[kapkomet]

That mine sounds particularly dangerous.

[WilliamTell]

this probably sounds very hard to do, but if other people's lives are going to be at risk trying to save the 6 people who are very likely to be dead, then they should reconsider putting more people in danger. i'd hate to see anymore people die from this.

[Brian]

I fell asleep last night seeing that 4 more were taken to the hospital. Sad story. Hopefully they will at least be able to find the bodies and give those families some closure.

[NorthSideSox72]

this probably sounds very hard to do, but if other people's lives are going to be at risk trying to save the 6 people who are very likely to be dead, then they should reconsider putting more people in danger. i'd hate to see anymore people die from this.

And that's what has happened. Physical rescue operations have been suspended. They are still drilling bore holes though, to try to get cameras, mics, air and water down there.

 

[Kid Gleason]

This seals it for me, I will never go to work in a mine.

[NorthSideSox72]

This seals it for me, I will never go to work in a mine.

Please tell me that pun was intentional.

 

[Kid Gleason]

Please tell me that pun was intentional.

 

Ach, I wish I could. Sorry.

[sox4lifeinPA]

this probably sounds very hard to do, but if other people's lives are going to be at risk trying to save the 6 people who are very likely to be dead, then they should reconsider putting more people in danger. i'd hate to see anymore people die from this.

 

You'd play Ed Burns in Saving Private Ryan.

[WilliamTell]

You'd play Ed Burns in Saving Private Ryan.

 

i've actually never seen that movie, but i'm thinking that's not a good thing.

[sox4lifeinPA]

i've actually never seen that movie, but i'm thinking that's not a good thing.

 

nah, I like Ed Burns, who I actually thought was ben affleck at one point which was weird, but he has a moment where he doesn't see the point of risking 8 lives for 1.

[WilliamTell]

nah, I like Ed Burns, who I actually thought was ben affleck at one point which was weird, but he has a moment where he doesn't see the point of risking 8 lives for 1.

 

I see, I get it.

[southsider2k5]

Wow, these people don't need anything more.

[DBAHO]

We had a mine collapse down here last year, took about 2 weeks to get 2 people out, 1 had died trapped under the rubble.

 

Hopefully something like this will allow for mining companies etc. to have a look at their mines and to make sure their staff are operating under safe working conditions, and that management and the companies aren't taking shortcuts or anything.

[southsider2k5]

It could be worse, I just saw about the collapse in China where almost 200 people died.

[DrunkBomber]

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Officials said six trapped coal miners may never be found, outraging family members of the men who say their loved ones are being left for dead.

 

Searchers were grim Sunday after receiving air readings from a fourth hole drilled more than 1,500 feet into the mountainside. The readings detected insufficient oxygen to support life.

 

Repeated efforts to signal the men have been met with silence.

 

"It's likely these miners may not be found," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine.

 

Mine officials had sustained hope for two weeks that the miners would be brought out alive, even after three rescuers were killed and six more hurt in another "bump" inside the mountain.

 

Family members of the six miners trapped in the initial Aug. 6 collapse accused the mine's owners and federal officials of abandoning their loved ones.

 

"We feel that they've given up and that they are just waiting for the six miners to expire," said Sonny Olsen, a spokesman for the families, reading from a prepared statement Sunday night as about 70 relatives of the trapped miners stood behind him.

 

"We are here at the mercies of the officials in charge and their so-called experts. Precious time is being squandered here, and we do not have time to spare," Olsen said.

 

The families demanded that rescuers immediately begin drilling a 30-inch hole into which a rescue capsule could be lowered. Olsen said the families believe it is "the safest and most effective method to rescue their loved ones."

 

"If rescue is not possible," he added, "the capsule is the only method to recover our loved ones so that they can have a proper burial."

 

Christopher Van Bever, an attorney for Murray Energy, said the company had no immediate response to the families' statement. A spokesman for the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration did not return a call seeking comment Sunday.

 

A rescue capsule was used in 2002 to pluck nine trapped miners from the flooded Quecreek mine in western Pennsylvania. But those miners were only about 230 feet below the surface, and the drilling took place on a gently rolling dairy farm.

 

Rescue workers in that case heard tapping sounds hours after the miners became trapped, indicating at least some of them were alive. The whole ordeal was over in just over three days.

 

At Crandall Canyon, there has been little evidence that the six miners survived the initial collapse. Four boreholes have given workers limited access to the mine, allowing them to lower video cameras and microphones, but they've found no signs of life.

 

Engineering experts from around the nation gathered at the mine Sunday to try to figure out a safe way of reaching the missing men. Underground tunneling has been halted since Thursday's deaths, and Moore expressed doubt that the tunneling effort would resume.

 

No support system can withstand the unpredictable and explosive force of a mountain bump, according to Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration. Once a coal pillar collapses, it can set off a chain reaction of collapses as the weight of the original pillar held is transferred.

 

Moore had been far more upbeat earlier in the weekend, but on Sunday he said oxygen readings and video images taken from the fourth hole had changed his mind about the miners' probable fate. Oxygen levels in the hole are just 11 to 12 percent, incompatible with life. Normal oxygen levels are 21 percent.

 

Workers started Sunday on a fifth borehole into the mountain, more than 2,000 feet down, but Moore said he expected to find insufficient air there, too.

 

"Our thoughts and our prayers and our deepest sympathies go out to the families — for all those families involved in the two tragedies here," he said.

 

If tunneling doesn't restart, part of the mine will have been turned into a tomb. Despite that, Moore said there is recoverable coal in other parts of the 5,000-acre mine, and the company expected to resume operations at some point. He said he didn't discuss that prospect with family members.

 

From the front page of yahoo. Let me reiterate. This would be one of the top 5 ways to go for me.

[Kid Gleason]

You would WANT to be buried in a mine?

 

I understand the families grief and all, but do they really think that after 2 weeks there is any chance that these men are alive? 2 weeks with no food and water is tough to begin with, but in those conditions would be near impossible.

 

 

[Balta1701]

You would WANT to be buried in a mine?

 

I understand the families grief and all, but do they really think that after 2 weeks there is any chance that these men are alive? 2 weeks with no food and water is tough to begin with, but in those conditions would be near impossible.

There is usually enough water simply hanging out in most mines, depending on the exact geology, to at least have given them a shot if there was oxygen. Food however...it would come down to what they had on them or in whatever area they were trapped in, and how well they rationed their energy use. They'd be right @ the end of the line now though...and that's all assuming that there was some amount of oxygen.

[sox4lifeinPA]

You would WANT to be buried in a mine?

 

I understand the families grief and all, but do they really think that after 2 weeks there is any chance that these men are alive? 2 weeks with no food and water is tough to begin with, but in those conditions would be near impossible.

 

not to mention another 3 people dying. I understand the "never give up" mentality, but unfortunately they signed on to this job and knew the risks.

[sox4lifeinPA]

from foxnews.com

 

HUNTINGTON, Utah — Relatives of six miners trapped deep inside a Utah coal mine are holding out hope the sixth — and last — borehole will provide the miracle they've craved for more than two weeks.

 

Other holes drilled into the Crandall Canyon mine have failed to reveal signs of life. The sixth hole is to be drilled Thursday into an area where the miners were last believed to have been working.

 

"This is the last hole," mine co-owner Bob Murray said at a news conference Wednesday night. Drilling it, he said, will "bring closure to me that I could never get them out alive."

 

But Jackie Taylor, whose daughter Lacee dates one of the six men missing since an Aug. 6 cave-in, said relatives and friends are insisting that more be done.

 

She issued a plea Thursday for the rescue effort to continue, even though three men died trying to tunnel toward the miners.

 

"We are so appreciative to all of the rescue members and their families. Don't get us wrong, we are so appreciative," Taylor told NBC's "Today." "Our love and our prayers go out to all of their family members. But our family members are still under there. They're underground. We need that closure in our lives also."

 

RelatedPhoto Essays

Deadly Setback in Search for Miners Utah Mine Collapse Punching through the fifth borehole Wednesday, rescuers found only a 6-inch void in the mine 1,500 feet down, federal officials said.

 

No noise was heard from the hole after a microphone was lowered and workers banged on the drill steel, said Jack Kuzar, a district manager for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. A video camera had not yet been put down the hole, nor had oxygen readings been measured, Kuzar said.

 

Attempts to tunnel through the broken mine shaft toward the miners were halted after a second cave-in killed two miners and a federal safety officer. Six others were injured.

 

Sonny J. Olsen, a lawyer and spokesman for relatives of the miners, said the families don't want the search to end until the men are found.

 

"Regardless if it takes three months to wait for the seismic activity to stop, they want some method to go down and get their families," Olsen said.

 

Taylor, who said she had a shouting match with Murray during a Monday night meeting with families, said the mine owner is reneging on his promise to return the men to their families dead or alive.

 

"I didn't desert anybody," Murray told The Associated Press. "I've been living on this mountain every day, living in a little trailer."

 

Families are also angry at Murray over the suspended tunneling and the decision against digging a hole big enough for a rescue capsule to be lowered. Other critics and mine experts have questioned whether mining should have been conducted at Crandall Canyon at all because of the potential for collapses.

 

Murray said it's up to federal officials to decide when the mine can be sealed after it completes its investigation.

 

He said he would not resume mining at the Crandall Canyon mine. "I can tell you right now, we are not going back into that mountain," he said.

 

If investigators can't get to the point of the collapse's origin, Kuzar said, "we will never really know what happened."

 

Most workers at Crandall Canyon have been given jobs at two other mines in central Utah's coal belt, although a small crew remains at Crandall Canyon, Murray said.

 

The collapse that trapped the miners is believed to have been caused by settling layers of earth bearing down on the walls of a coal mine. The force can cause pillars to fail, turning chunks of coal into missiles. The unpredictable and dangerous phenomenon is known by miners as a "bump."

 

"Had I known that this evil mountain, this alive mountain, would do what it did, I would never have sent the miners in here," Murray said earlier. "I'll never go near that mountain again."

 

Murray has insisted the collapse was caused by a natural earthquake, but government seismologists say the collapse itself is what caused the ground to shake, registering a magnitude of 3.9. Since then there have been several other bumps.

 

give me a friggin' break.

[Texsox]

from foxnews.com

 

 

 

give me a friggin' break.

 

Why don't you believe him?

[sox4lifeinPA]

Why don't you believe him?

 

 

if you're serious, please ask the question again.

[Texsox]

if you're serious, please ask the question again.

 

Why do you not believe him?

 

There is a difference between knowing there is a chance, and knowing it would happen.

[sox4lifeinPA]

Why do you not believe him?

 

There is a difference between knowing there is a chance, and knowing it would happen.

 

 

He owns the mine. He's trying to make $$. He called the mountain evil. He said it was alive.

 

Maybe it's not a matter of believing him as much as thinking he's a crazy bastard. Now if he has regrets because safety was overlooked for $$, I might understand his comments.

[StrangeSox]

He owns the mine. He's trying to make $$. He called the mountain evil. He said it was alive.

 

Maybe it's not a matter of believing him as much as thinking he's a crazy bastard. Now if he has regrets because safety was overlooked for $$, I might understand his comments.

 

Remember when he said he'd stay at that mountain until the miners were recovered, dead or alive?

 

I knew that statement would bite him in the ass.