US News
Three Utah mine rescuers killed in new collapse (1st Lead)
Aug 17, 2007, 7:19 GMT
Washington - Three rescue workers were killed and six wounded Thursday night while trying to reach coal miners trapped inside a Utah mountain, local authorities said.
The collapse was caused by seismic activity, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), a regulatory agency within the US Labour Department, said.
Jeff Manley, an administrator at Castleview Hospital, the nearest medical facility, said that there was 'some kind of collapse in the mine.'
Miners described Thursday's incident as a 'bump,' or a small shift in the mountain that causes an audible bang and sometimes collapses. A similar incident caused the August 6 accident.
Utah state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi said that all rescue crews have been pulled out of the mine outside Huntington, Utah, in the Rocky Mountains.
Rescue miners, who have numbered more than 100, mostly coworkers of the trapped men, had been pulled from the mine several times previously during the 11-day effort due to concerns about instability inside the mountain.
MSHA spokesman Rich Kulczewski said he was unsure when or whether rescue work would continue, and was asked in a press conference what the families of the still-trapped miners would be told.
'That's a hard question,' he said. 'Nothing's been decided.'
Rescuers had been labouring to penetrate collapsed rock and coal that trapped six miners on August 6 inside the Crandall Canyon.
Amid the digging work to reopen the mine passage, three holes were drilled from the surface as deep as 600 metres and a fourth was underway in attempts so far in vain to make contact with the six trapped miners.
The site of the original collapse and Thursday's mishap is about 5 kilometres into the mine, and can only be reached by a 30-minute trek via small trucks.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
I am not 100% confident the Miners Survived since they have gone a while without food or water. But even then. Recovering their bodies is still important. So without a doubt continuing is the only option. It's not a matter of if it is possible. It's a matter of not giving up.
quitters never win
I agree that at least recovering the bodies is important.
I am also concerned, however, that there seems to be some sort of disconnect with the reality of the conditions of that mine. These bumps are not some sort of natural seismic activity. They are what happen when there is too little support, and too much weight on the pillars and floor. The floor suddenly buckles. The pillars explosively fail. The roof falls in. The tunnel collapses.
Doesn't anyone else find it a little suspicious that a week ago several rescuers were reassigned out of the mine because they believed that the conditions were not safe enough and another bump was possible? What about the bump they had in the spring of this year? Why were they working in a section between two collapsed sections without reevaluating the stresses in that section?
The owner of the mine goes on the media and talks about seismic activity, like it was a natural earthquake, and that their plan to remove the existing pillars was approved by the federal agency responsible for mine safety. This seems to me to be a kind of denial that the mining activity is the cause of these two disasters.
Without facing the reality of the situation, and adjusting the recovery plans accordingly, they are in my opinion just inviting a third disaster from a fourth bump at the same mine.
We lost family in the Victoria Mine disaster (1908)in glasgow Scotland .Oddly enough they carried eighteen empty coffins through Nitshill before burying them in the local graveyard and erected a gravestone with all their names on it.They couldn't recover the bodies either, as firedamp blew the main seam and the winding wheels off the pit top.
The mine remains sealed to this day.
God bless their souls.
Ah for the wonders of the Internet.
I've always relied on oral family tradition..you know the sort of thing ,stories that you get off your grandparents, anyway I just got a surprise when checking this out online just now.
Victoria Mine.Nitshill,Glasgow , Scotland
It wasn't 1908 but 15th May 1851 .61 dead.
I believe the rest is true.
These other men should also be willing to die. It's important to save Bush's legacy and to fully credit Bush for seeking Freedom by sending more miners in to die in the unsafe environment created because of Bush policies.
The gov't does not care about these miners. As long as the gov't receives the tax monies, big business can do anything they want. After all, corporations and gov't are merely quid-pro-quo whorehouses sold to the highest bidder. When the gov't needs illegal wire-taps, Verizon and Sprint allow them secret rooms to listen in on calls. When Haliburton (and KBR) need more revenue, the gov't hands out no-bid contracts. When the gov't dislikes literature, Amazon and Wikipedia ban the book 'America Deceived'. We The People had our gov't sold out from beneath us.
perhaps its a time to help the families of the miners.We used to do it years ago, but perhaps go thro your local communities but watch for scams.Don't send money online.
page: 1
krhaelAug 17th, 2007 - 08:04:22
so we let them die in vain? Those rescue workers put their life on the line to save those trapped miners, they go in the job full well knowing the dangers of their task, surely if they were still with us, they'd want us to continue the job, it's ridiculous to stop now.
DON'T STOP! SAVE THE MINERS!
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