Underground Search for Miners on Hold

Aug. 17, 2007 — -- Federal mine officials have indefinitely suspended the underground search for six men trapped in a Utah coal mine after a second cave-in Thursday night killed three rescue workers and injured six others.

The fatal collapse occurred as a rescue team slowly dug through underground debris in the main mine shaft toward the area where officials believe the trapped men may be. There has been so sign of life since the Crandall Canyon mine originally caved in 11 days ago on Aug. 6.

"Some of the miners were buried and we had to remove two or three feet of material to get them out," Richard Stickler, head of the federal government's Mine Safety and Health Administration, said at an afternoon press conference.

Around 8:30 p.m. EDT Thursday night, Stickler said, the right rib of the mine shaft gave way due to a "mountain bump" -- underground seismic activity that can knock material from the mine walls. Thirty feet of debris took out the rescue effort, Stickler said, breaking 40-ton pieces of machinery in half and destroying the ground support system that had been put in place to assist in the underground rescue.

Additional rescue workers had to enter the mine to help the men caught in Thursday night's collapse. One of the men who died, Stickler said, was a federal mine safety employee. Three men remained hospitalized as of the press conference.

Work trying to reach the trapped miners underground will not continue until federal officials assemble ground support system experts to help determine the safest course of action.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman described the three men who died Thursday as "selfless" and heroic. Huntsman also, however, cautioned against moving forward with additional underground efforts until the rescue site is stabilized.

"Let us ensure that we have no more injuries," Huntsman said. "We have suffered enough as a state."

Dangerous conditions have jeopardized the rescue effort since the initial collapse. Before Thursday night's cave-in, rescuers had only cleared 826 feet of debris in the main mine shaft over nine days — leaving them with 1,200 feet to go to reach the area where the miners are presumably trapped. Several times, seismic activity put rescue efforts on temporary hold. On the first day of the rescue effort, a bump shook the mountain, pushing the effort back 300 feet.

Now rescuers must focus on vertical holes they have been drilling into various cavities of the mine since the cave-in Aug. 6.

The drilling efforts have provided mixed signals. At times, there have been positive signs, including enough oxygen to breathe and unidentified sounds that have given temporary hope. But video from inside the mines has shown no signs of life and there have been questions about whether the drill holes reached the desired locations. Rescuers are currently 600 feet in on a fourth hole.

"If we can find the miners alive, we can keep them alive by lowering water and food," Stickler said, adding that if they are discovered alive, the hole would be carved wide enough to lower a capsule that could lift the miners out of the ground one at a time.

Mine co-owner Robert Murray, president of Murray Energy Corp., did not appear at the afternoon press conference, but Thursday night described the seismic activity underground as "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," Murray said.

Lee Siegel, a spokesman for the University of Utah seismographic stations, told CNN this morning that the seismic activity Thursday night was similar to the measurement taken during the initial Aug. 6 collapse.

Utah seismography researchers, who oversee data for the U.S. Geological Survey, have maintained that the initial cave-in followed seismic activity more consistent with a mountain bump rather than an earthquake, a point mine co-owner Murray has disputed.

The causes of death for the three rescue workers remain unknown and their identities have not been released. Injuries varied in severity, as the miners were taken to hospitals around the state.

The community around the Crandall Canyon mine has found itself mourning for the second time in two weeks. When ambulances came streaming down the mountainside Thursday evening, many hoped that it was the miracle they'd been waiting for, that rescuers had reached the trapped miners.

But the reality was much crueler, and now officials must determine the safest way to proceed with the rescue effort while burying three people who died trying to find the trapped men.

"The greatest thing you can do is give your life in an attempt to save others, it's a selfless act," said Mayor Joe Piccolo of Price, Utah.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.