laura05
Well-Known Member
Three rescue workers were killed and six injured Thursday night during an apparent "seismic bump" at a Utah mine, according to state and hospital officials.
The workers were attempting to reach six miners who have been trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine since an August 6 collapse. There has been no contact with those miners.
Emergency work to clear a tunnel leading to the trapped miners will resume once the mine operator receives safety clearance from federal officials, Murray Energy Group Corp. spokesman Michael Knowles said.
However, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. early Friday said "underground mining for the time being is going to cease" but added above-ground work to drill a fourth hole into the mine would continue.
Huntsman said he would meet with officials from the Mine Safety and Health Administration and Murray Energy Group "to get word on what they expect to do in hours and days ahead."
The three who died did so in a "remarkable act of selflessness," Huntsman said. "There is nothing more selfless than giving one's life while rescuing another."
He also pledged to improve mine safety -- "not only in Utah but throughout the country."
Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration spokesman Rich Kulczewski told reporters an "underground bump" occurred at 6:35 p.m. MT (8:35 p.m. ET).
The event is described as an eruption of coal and rock caused by pressure from overhead rock as material shifts during drilling.
Six ambulances and at least two medical helicopters converged on the mine site to ferry nine victims of the mountain "bump" to hospitals, Kulczewski said. Photo See photos of the emergency response »
All rescue workers in the mine at the time of the seismic activity have been accounted for, Kulczewski said.
Mine worker Donnie Leonard said he was preparing to leave the mine at the end of his shift when he first heard yelling about miners being trapped in a new collapse.
"People were running everywhere," gathering stretchers and supplies, he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/17/utah.mine/index.html
The workers were attempting to reach six miners who have been trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine since an August 6 collapse. There has been no contact with those miners.
Emergency work to clear a tunnel leading to the trapped miners will resume once the mine operator receives safety clearance from federal officials, Murray Energy Group Corp. spokesman Michael Knowles said.
However, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. early Friday said "underground mining for the time being is going to cease" but added above-ground work to drill a fourth hole into the mine would continue.
Huntsman said he would meet with officials from the Mine Safety and Health Administration and Murray Energy Group "to get word on what they expect to do in hours and days ahead."
The three who died did so in a "remarkable act of selflessness," Huntsman said. "There is nothing more selfless than giving one's life while rescuing another."
He also pledged to improve mine safety -- "not only in Utah but throughout the country."
Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration spokesman Rich Kulczewski told reporters an "underground bump" occurred at 6:35 p.m. MT (8:35 p.m. ET).
The event is described as an eruption of coal and rock caused by pressure from overhead rock as material shifts during drilling.
Six ambulances and at least two medical helicopters converged on the mine site to ferry nine victims of the mountain "bump" to hospitals, Kulczewski said. Photo See photos of the emergency response »
All rescue workers in the mine at the time of the seismic activity have been accounted for, Kulczewski said.
Mine worker Donnie Leonard said he was preparing to leave the mine at the end of his shift when he first heard yelling about miners being trapped in a new collapse.
"People were running everywhere," gathering stretchers and supplies, he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/17/utah.mine/index.html
