Rescue Workers Killed, Injured at Utah Mine

Friday, August 17, 2007 : When Louis Alonso Hernandez, 23, Manuel Sanchez, 41, Kerry Allred, 57, Brandon Phillips, 24, Don Erickson, 50, and Carlos Payan, in his 20s, began their 12-hour shift 1,500 feet underground at the Crandall Canyon mine Aug. 6, they fully expected to see their families at the end of the day. Now their families are gathered, praying and waiting as over 100 rescue workers, including members of the United Mine Workers Union, furiously drill and dig to find the miners.

The Crandall Canyon mine is nonunion.

Eight hours into their 12-hour shift, the mine collapsed at 2:48 a.m. Four members of the 10-man crew escaped. As we go to press, rescue efforts continue.

Solidarity messages have flooded into the trapped miners’ families from across the country. Sago Mine families, 2,500 miles away in West Virginia, sent their prayers and expressed their determination to demand the federal government force coal companies to make the mines safe.

“I have shed many tears this evening,” Peggy Cohen, daughter of Fred Ware, who died in the Sago Mine disaster in January 2006, wrote to the Charleston Gazette. “My heart aches for them [the Utah families].”

Pam Campbell, sister-in-law of Sago disaster victim Marty Bennett, wrote that despite all the publicity, congressional hearings, state and federal laws and politicians’ speeches and promises, coal mines remain as dangerous as they were before the Sago disaster.

“The fines have been minimal, and until MSHA [the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration] starts cracking down with stiff fines for violations that are putting these miners at risk, more and more miners are going to die,” Campbell wrote. “Repeat violations should not be tolerated at any of our nation’s mines. Enough is not being done. How many more miners have to die before some one listens?”

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Friday, August 17, 2007 :Eleven days since the August 6 cave-in at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, families and friends of the six trapped coal miners are continuing their vigil although there has been no contact with the men and it is unlikely that they will be found alive. Because of the instability of the mine and further cave-ins, rescuers have cut through less than half of the fallen rock and coal in the path to where the miners are believed to be.

At this pace, it would take nearly two weeks to reach them.

In an all-too-familiar scene in coal communities, from the western US states to Appalachia, hundreds of people from the surrounding small towns of Huntington, Cleveland, Helper, Price and Orangeville have joined the rescue effort, held fundraisers for “Our Six” and rallied to support the families of the victims. Among those involved in these efforts are survivors of the 1984 fire at the nearby Wilberg Mine, which claimed the lives of 27 miners. One of the trapped miners in Crandall Canyon, 24-year-old Brandon Phillips, who had been on the job just three weeks before the mine collapsed, lost an uncle in the Wilberg fire, the worst mine disaster in Utah history.

The current tragedy has been felt as far away as Mexico, where two of the trapped men—Jose Luis Hernandez, 23, and Juan Carlos Payan, 22—recently left families behind in order to seek higher wages in Utah’s mines. Expressions of sympathy and solidarity have arrived from many quarters, including from the families of the 12 miners who perished in the Sago Mine disaster in January 2006.

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Friday, August 17, 2007 : Three men die and six are injured after seismic tremor causes rock fall at mine.

Three rescuers attempting to find six miners trapped for more than 10 days in an American mine have been killed and six injured, after a seismic tremor. The injured men, who were preparing to drill a rescue hole, are being treated at the Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah to Castleview Hospital and Utah State Hospital.

Jeff Manley, a Castleview spokesman, said late on Thursday that there were at least nine people injured by the rock movement, but possibly more. We have been told there may be up to 11." Three of the badly injured team later died.

Seismic bump

The trapped miners have not been heard from since the mine caved in on August 6.

Thursday's seismic tremor, known as a bump, is an eruption of rock and coal under increased pressure from overhead rock as drilling removes surrounding rock and material shifts in an area of the mine.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on its website that three ambulances went to the mine shortly after 7pm (0110 GMT), followed by three helicopters.

Ongoing efforts

Robert Murray, co-owner of Crandall Canyon Mine, said earlier in the day that the cavity found by a third bore hole had enough oxygen to sustain life indefinitely and that his crews would keep up efforts to contact the missing men.

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Friday, August 17, 2007 : Three rescue workers die in a suspected cave-in as efforts continue to find six miners trapped in a Utah coal mine.

It is thought that the rescue workers were caught in a cave-in as they tried to dig a tunnel to the spot where it is believed the six miners are trapped.

The collapse happened at 1830 (0035 GMT), according to safety officials.

No contact has been made with the six trapped miners since a tunnel collapsed 1,500ft (457m) underground on 6 August.

The accident is another setback to the attempt to reach the miners and it is unclear whether rescue operations will resume on Friday.

Finding volunteers willing to go back in is just one of the mounting dilemmas for this dangerous and now fatal rescue mission, reports the BBC's Duncan Kennedy.

'Mountain bump'

Since the first mine collapse, rescue teams had tunnelled about 250m towards the trapped miners, with about 350m to go, when the latest accident happened.

Dirk Fillpot, spokesman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the accident was caused by a "mountain bump" - a build-up of pressure inside a mine from overhead rock that forces surrounding rock and coal to shoot out of the walls with great force.

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