Jennifer
08-17-2007, 09:34 AM
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6643542
Cave-in kills three rescuers, halts underground effort to reach Crandall Canyon's trapped miners
Borehole drilling continues
By Mike Gorrell and Peg McEntee
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:08/17/2007 06:49:29 AM MDT
Updated 6:33 AM- HUNTINGTON -- A catastrophic failure deep inside central Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine killed three rescue workers, injured six others and cast grave doubt on whether a rescue mission to find six miners since Aug. 6 will be allowed to resume.
Those killed and injured Thursday night were part of a perilous operation to find the missing miners, who were caught in a similar failure 12 days ago. They were burrowing through a rubble-choked tunnel when they were caught in seismic "bump," which can cause the walls of a mine tunnel to implode, at about 6:35 p.m., said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesperson for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Even as he hailed the dead and injured as heroes, a grim Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. strongly questioned when, or whether the suspended underground portion of rescue efforts should be resumed any time soon.
"It has gone from a tragedy to a catastrophe," he told CNN early today. "We shouldn't allow another person in the underground mine until we can insure their safety.
"We expect to become smarter and better and safer [in rescue attempts]. No one wants the lives of these heroes to be lost in vain," Huntsman added.
Huntsman said he would demand MSHA and mine owner Robert Murray bar resumption of the underground rescue work unless there are "certain guarantees that there will be worker safety."
The governor said the rescuers who died Thursday night had offered a "remarkable act of selflessness. . . . There is nothing more selfless than giving one's life while rescuing another." Huntsman said the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster has committed him to working for improved mine safety both in Utah, and throughout the nation.
The University of Utah Seismograph Stations in Salt Lake City confirmed today that the latest cave-in had registered on their sensors as a 1.6 magnitude event at 6:38 p.m. Thursday. Spokesman Lee Siegel said seismologists characterize the reading as "very, very shallow," about one-tenth of a mile beneath the surface.
Scientists said the event was indicative of ground movement associated with mining, not an earthquake.
"It is a devastating blow to what was already a tragic situation," said Joe Piccolo, mayor of Price, one of many communities in the coal-rich region of east-central Utah. Piccolo's own father died in a coal mine disaster half a century ago.
Earlier Thursday, however, Murray described the seismic activity in the mountain that encases the mine as "relentless. The mountain is still moving and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive towards these trapped miners, for whom I take total responsibility."
One man died at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, said hospital spokesman Janet Frank. Another died at Castleview Hospital in Price; it was unclear when and where the third man was confirmed dead.
The surviving rescue workers' injuries ranged from head trauma to broken bones to bumps and bruises. At least one was released from Castleview Hospital, while others were being treated there and at UVRMC and University Hospital in Salt Lake City, spokespeople said. Their identities, and those of the men who died, were not immediately available late Thursday.
Among those injured were Crandall Canyon employees and two MSHA managers who were involved in the rescue effort in the mine, which has been unstable for months. The fate of the six missing miners is unknown, despite unceasing efforts to locate their whereabouts and to reach them through the enormous mine's main entrance.
After the accident, which occurred at 6:35 p.m., at least five ambulances sped down the canyon road after the accident, and paramedics could be seen doing chest compressions on patients. As word spread, grim-faced relatives of the rescue workers as well as local, state and federal officials flocked to the canyon leading to the mine.
Bumps such as those occurred Thursday have been a recurring problem in the mine, situated high in the mountainside near Huntington. The mountain rises about 1,800 feet above the mine, a horizontal complex dug some four miles into the mountainside, causing intense pressure on the pillars, wire mesh and roof bolts intended to protect the tunnels and those working in them.
The mine is co-owned by Murray Energy Corp., an Ohio-based operator. Murray, its president and CEO, has been an unflagging presence at the rescue operation since it began Aug. 6.
Earlier Thursday, Murray said efforts to reach the missing miners stopped when the sides of the mine collapsed, half burying their continuous mining machine Wednesday evening.
Crews were able to clear out only 26 feet of the tunnel in nearly a day, leaving 1,600 feet to go before they reach the area where missing miners Don Erickson, Luis Alonso Hernandez, Brandon Phillips, Juan Carlos Payan, Kerry Allred and Manuel Sanchez were last heard from.
Debbie Oveson, whose son and two nephews were among the rescuers working Thursday, said she got a call to come to the Castleview Hospital in Price.
Maria Lerma of Huntington heard of the accident from friends and rushed up to the mouth of Crandall Canyon, frantic to hear about what might have befallen her husband, Natalio, who was working in the rescue effort.
Her daughter, Adilene, sobbed as English-speaking family friend Siklalic Garcia conferred with Emery County Sheriff's Capt. Kyle Ekker, who contacted officials at the mine and confirmed that Natalio Lerma was not among the nine injured.
But Garcia said Maria Lerma "is not going to be OK until she sees him."
Mine owner Murray confirmed during a news conference this week that some miners had asked to be moved to a different part of the rescue operation because they were afraid for their safety.
As part of the rescue effort, three bore holes were drilled into areas of the mine where the miners might have been. Videos taken in the tunnels revealed no sign of the missing miners; only some bags, mining vehicles and rubble.
Air monitors lowered into the cavities did show that in some cases, the oxygen content of the air yielded faint glimmer of hopes that the men survived the initial catastrophic collapse and barricaded themselves away from lethal, oxygen-deficient air released into the working section when the mine's walls collapsed.
MSHA's Stickler said monitors lowered through the last of the three boreholes measured oxygen concentrations of roughly 16 percent. Typical air contains about 21 percent. The first boreholes drilled closer to the working section had only a deadly 7 percent oxygen level.
At 16 percent oxygen, Stickler said, "your heart rate will be elevated slightly. . . . It's similar to jogging or walking fast. . . . You can survive at 16 percent."
With the determination that breathable air was present, rescue organizers began drilling a fourth borehole into the mine around noon Thursday. It was aimed on a diagonal at a spot in the same tunnel as the third borehole, but about 650 feet closer to the area where the miners were working.
It was not known early today if the drilling would continue.
Stickler said that tunnel was targeted because mine maps show that it would be the most logical spot for miners fleeing toxic air to erect tarplike barricades to protect their breathable supplies from contamination.
It also is in the proximity of "noise" detected Wednesday morning by two of six geophones, sensitive seismic listening devices placed in a large diameter circle on the mountain above the mine.
Stickler clarified that the listening devices, which recorded vibrations every 1.5 seconds for five minutes after the third drill hole pierced the tunnel Wednesday morning, did not mean that the the "noise" originated in the mine.
"What we were picking up, we can't tell you that it was in the mine. . . . It appeared to be coming in a vertical plane somewhere above crosscut 143," Stickler said, referring to the point where the fourth bore hole will be driven.
"We have no idea if it's at the surface, or somewhere in the rock strata, or in the coal seam or even in the rock strata below the coal seam, " he added. "But we felt it was significant enough that we could not discount it and that was the reason for [selecting] the location of the borehole."
Murray also said that a brattice curtain seen underground - the tarplike material that would be used in a barricade - actually had been photographed by a camera lowered down the second borehole, far from the bleeder tunnel where rescue organizers thought the miners might build a refuge.
Murray said the fourth borehole would be 1,586 feet deep and likely would reach its destination late Friday or early Saturday.
If audio and video equipment lowered down that bore hole yield no evidence the miners are alive, Murray said rescue organizers will have to decide what to do next. "We'll be guided for the fifth hole - if there is one - based on what we find with the fourth."
But as Murray noted Wednesday, the bore holes only can let rescuers know where the missing miners are located and if they are still alive. "We can do all of this on the surface and if it works out, hallelujah. We'll sustain their lives until we can get to them underground. But we must get to them underground."
And that process, he reiterated Thursday, was "going disappointingly slow."
mikeg@sltrib.com, pegmcentee@sltrib.com
--- Patty Henetz, Jeremiah Stettler, Olga Munoz, Jason Bergreen and Bob Mims contributed to this report.
Cave-in kills three rescuers, halts underground effort to reach Crandall Canyon's trapped miners
Borehole drilling continues
By Mike Gorrell and Peg McEntee
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:08/17/2007 06:49:29 AM MDT
Updated 6:33 AM- HUNTINGTON -- A catastrophic failure deep inside central Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine killed three rescue workers, injured six others and cast grave doubt on whether a rescue mission to find six miners since Aug. 6 will be allowed to resume.
Those killed and injured Thursday night were part of a perilous operation to find the missing miners, who were caught in a similar failure 12 days ago. They were burrowing through a rubble-choked tunnel when they were caught in seismic "bump," which can cause the walls of a mine tunnel to implode, at about 6:35 p.m., said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesperson for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Even as he hailed the dead and injured as heroes, a grim Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. strongly questioned when, or whether the suspended underground portion of rescue efforts should be resumed any time soon.
"It has gone from a tragedy to a catastrophe," he told CNN early today. "We shouldn't allow another person in the underground mine until we can insure their safety.
"We expect to become smarter and better and safer [in rescue attempts]. No one wants the lives of these heroes to be lost in vain," Huntsman added.
Huntsman said he would demand MSHA and mine owner Robert Murray bar resumption of the underground rescue work unless there are "certain guarantees that there will be worker safety."
The governor said the rescuers who died Thursday night had offered a "remarkable act of selflessness. . . . There is nothing more selfless than giving one's life while rescuing another." Huntsman said the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster has committed him to working for improved mine safety both in Utah, and throughout the nation.
The University of Utah Seismograph Stations in Salt Lake City confirmed today that the latest cave-in had registered on their sensors as a 1.6 magnitude event at 6:38 p.m. Thursday. Spokesman Lee Siegel said seismologists characterize the reading as "very, very shallow," about one-tenth of a mile beneath the surface.
Scientists said the event was indicative of ground movement associated with mining, not an earthquake.
"It is a devastating blow to what was already a tragic situation," said Joe Piccolo, mayor of Price, one of many communities in the coal-rich region of east-central Utah. Piccolo's own father died in a coal mine disaster half a century ago.
Earlier Thursday, however, Murray described the seismic activity in the mountain that encases the mine as "relentless. The mountain is still moving and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive towards these trapped miners, for whom I take total responsibility."
One man died at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, said hospital spokesman Janet Frank. Another died at Castleview Hospital in Price; it was unclear when and where the third man was confirmed dead.
The surviving rescue workers' injuries ranged from head trauma to broken bones to bumps and bruises. At least one was released from Castleview Hospital, while others were being treated there and at UVRMC and University Hospital in Salt Lake City, spokespeople said. Their identities, and those of the men who died, were not immediately available late Thursday.
Among those injured were Crandall Canyon employees and two MSHA managers who were involved in the rescue effort in the mine, which has been unstable for months. The fate of the six missing miners is unknown, despite unceasing efforts to locate their whereabouts and to reach them through the enormous mine's main entrance.
After the accident, which occurred at 6:35 p.m., at least five ambulances sped down the canyon road after the accident, and paramedics could be seen doing chest compressions on patients. As word spread, grim-faced relatives of the rescue workers as well as local, state and federal officials flocked to the canyon leading to the mine.
Bumps such as those occurred Thursday have been a recurring problem in the mine, situated high in the mountainside near Huntington. The mountain rises about 1,800 feet above the mine, a horizontal complex dug some four miles into the mountainside, causing intense pressure on the pillars, wire mesh and roof bolts intended to protect the tunnels and those working in them.
The mine is co-owned by Murray Energy Corp., an Ohio-based operator. Murray, its president and CEO, has been an unflagging presence at the rescue operation since it began Aug. 6.
Earlier Thursday, Murray said efforts to reach the missing miners stopped when the sides of the mine collapsed, half burying their continuous mining machine Wednesday evening.
Crews were able to clear out only 26 feet of the tunnel in nearly a day, leaving 1,600 feet to go before they reach the area where missing miners Don Erickson, Luis Alonso Hernandez, Brandon Phillips, Juan Carlos Payan, Kerry Allred and Manuel Sanchez were last heard from.
Debbie Oveson, whose son and two nephews were among the rescuers working Thursday, said she got a call to come to the Castleview Hospital in Price.
Maria Lerma of Huntington heard of the accident from friends and rushed up to the mouth of Crandall Canyon, frantic to hear about what might have befallen her husband, Natalio, who was working in the rescue effort.
Her daughter, Adilene, sobbed as English-speaking family friend Siklalic Garcia conferred with Emery County Sheriff's Capt. Kyle Ekker, who contacted officials at the mine and confirmed that Natalio Lerma was not among the nine injured.
But Garcia said Maria Lerma "is not going to be OK until she sees him."
Mine owner Murray confirmed during a news conference this week that some miners had asked to be moved to a different part of the rescue operation because they were afraid for their safety.
As part of the rescue effort, three bore holes were drilled into areas of the mine where the miners might have been. Videos taken in the tunnels revealed no sign of the missing miners; only some bags, mining vehicles and rubble.
Air monitors lowered into the cavities did show that in some cases, the oxygen content of the air yielded faint glimmer of hopes that the men survived the initial catastrophic collapse and barricaded themselves away from lethal, oxygen-deficient air released into the working section when the mine's walls collapsed.
MSHA's Stickler said monitors lowered through the last of the three boreholes measured oxygen concentrations of roughly 16 percent. Typical air contains about 21 percent. The first boreholes drilled closer to the working section had only a deadly 7 percent oxygen level.
At 16 percent oxygen, Stickler said, "your heart rate will be elevated slightly. . . . It's similar to jogging or walking fast. . . . You can survive at 16 percent."
With the determination that breathable air was present, rescue organizers began drilling a fourth borehole into the mine around noon Thursday. It was aimed on a diagonal at a spot in the same tunnel as the third borehole, but about 650 feet closer to the area where the miners were working.
It was not known early today if the drilling would continue.
Stickler said that tunnel was targeted because mine maps show that it would be the most logical spot for miners fleeing toxic air to erect tarplike barricades to protect their breathable supplies from contamination.
It also is in the proximity of "noise" detected Wednesday morning by two of six geophones, sensitive seismic listening devices placed in a large diameter circle on the mountain above the mine.
Stickler clarified that the listening devices, which recorded vibrations every 1.5 seconds for five minutes after the third drill hole pierced the tunnel Wednesday morning, did not mean that the the "noise" originated in the mine.
"What we were picking up, we can't tell you that it was in the mine. . . . It appeared to be coming in a vertical plane somewhere above crosscut 143," Stickler said, referring to the point where the fourth bore hole will be driven.
"We have no idea if it's at the surface, or somewhere in the rock strata, or in the coal seam or even in the rock strata below the coal seam, " he added. "But we felt it was significant enough that we could not discount it and that was the reason for [selecting] the location of the borehole."
Murray also said that a brattice curtain seen underground - the tarplike material that would be used in a barricade - actually had been photographed by a camera lowered down the second borehole, far from the bleeder tunnel where rescue organizers thought the miners might build a refuge.
Murray said the fourth borehole would be 1,586 feet deep and likely would reach its destination late Friday or early Saturday.
If audio and video equipment lowered down that bore hole yield no evidence the miners are alive, Murray said rescue organizers will have to decide what to do next. "We'll be guided for the fifth hole - if there is one - based on what we find with the fourth."
But as Murray noted Wednesday, the bore holes only can let rescuers know where the missing miners are located and if they are still alive. "We can do all of this on the surface and if it works out, hallelujah. We'll sustain their lives until we can get to them underground. But we must get to them underground."
And that process, he reiterated Thursday, was "going disappointingly slow."
mikeg@sltrib.com, pegmcentee@sltrib.com
--- Patty Henetz, Jeremiah Stettler, Olga Munoz, Jason Bergreen and Bob Mims contributed to this report.