Friday, August 17, 2007, 3:30 PM EDT
Report combined from various sources.


Huntington, Utah — The desperate underground drive to reach six trapped miners was suspended indefinitely Friday after a collapse Thursday evening killed three rescuers inside the mine, a federal official said. “Is there any possible way we can continue this underground operation and provide safety for the rescue workers? At this point we don’t have an answer,” said Mine Safety and Health Administration head, Richard Stickler.

The cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were attempting to tunnel through rubble to reach six miners trapped August Sixth inside the mine. Stickler said mine-safety experts were being summoned to central Utah to discuss the crisis.

Outside the mountain, crews were busy drilling a fourth hole in an effort to detect any sign of the six men, whose survival status is still unknown on the twelfth day of confinement, trapped some 1,500 feet below ground. “Without question, we have suffered a setback and we have incurred an incredible loss, but this team remains focused on the task at hand — the rescue of the miners”, said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corporation, co-owner of the mine.

“Yesterday we went from a tragedy to a catastrophe,” Governor Jon Huntsman said. He noted that the state would help federal officials in the investigation into the collapse. He further stated that “We have questions, too, and we want answers to those questions. We want to make sure that the lives that were lost last night were not in vain.”

The collapse Thursday evening is a devastating turn of events for the families of the six men trapped in the initial cave-in at the Crandall Canyon Mine and for the relatives of those trying to rescue them. All rescue workers were evacuated from the mine Thursday evening and work underground was suspended.

The cave-in, which occurred at 6:39 PM EDT, was believed to have been caused by a “mountain bump”, a phenomenon where shifting ground expels chunks of rock from the mine walls. The tremor caused by the “bump” was recorded as a seismic event registering 1.6 on the Richter Scale at the University of Utah’s seismograph station in Salt Lake City.

Stickler said it also unleashed a massive blast of coal and support material that hit the miners working to clear rubble from the underground tunnel. The blast created a destruction zone about 30 feet long along a wall of the chamber, and knocked out steel posts, chain link fencing, and the cables that joined everything together. “When that energy gets released, it’s like an explosion,” he said.

The initial collapse twelve days ago led to frantic efforts by rescuers to dig through the mine toward the men and drill narrow holes atop the mountain in an attempt to learn their whereabouts and perhaps drop food and water. Underground, rescuers had advanced only 826 feet in nine days. Before Thursday’s cave-in, workers still had about 1,200 feet of material to dig through in order to reach the location where they believe the trapped men had been working. Mining officials said conditions in the mine were treacherous, and they were frequently forced to halt digging because of seismic activity.

One of the rescue workers killed in the Thursday cave-in was a MSHA inspector, agency spokesman Dirk Fillpot said. He did not know his name or have information about the other victims. Injuries to the survivors ranged from cuts and scrapes to head and chest trauma. Six of the injured were taken to Castleview Hospital in Price, Utah. One rescuer died there, one was airlifted to a Provo hospital, and three were treated overnight, and released Friday morning, said Jeff Manley, the hospital's chief executive. A sixth was still being treated, in serious condition with back injuries. The second dead worker passed away at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, hospital spokeswoman Janet Frank said. Another worker there was in serious condition with head trauma, but was alert, she said. The third death was confirmed by Rich Kulczewski, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesman.

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!