Rescue Workers Still Trying to Find Utah Coal Miners
Posted by
Jenny AlbanoAugust 07, 2007 1:47 PMTags:
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Rescue workers worked all night to find the six coal miners that are trapped 1,500 feet underground after a coal mine collapsed on top of them on Monday, August 6 in Utah.
So far, none of the rescue efforts have not been successful. Dangerous conditions and falling rocks stopped the first drilling effort on Monday night. Rescue workers spent time clearing a road outside the collapsed mine to allow a drilling rig to make it to the scene.
There have been no signs of life from the workers since the mine collapsed. Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp., stated that, "They could have been struck by material and injured or killed, but we don't know that yet."
If the miners are alive they will have plenty of air because oxygen leaks into mines naturally, and the workers have plenty of drinking water stocked in the collapsed mine as well.
The mine is built into a mountain in the rugged Manti-La Sal National Forest, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City, in a sparsely populated area. Federal mine-safety inspectors, who have issued more than 300 citations against the mine since January 2004, were helping oversee the search.
The coal miners are thought to have been in a chamber 3.4 miles into the Crandall Canyon mine. Rescue teams were able to get to about 1,700 feet from that location before they were blocked by the debris.
If rescuers can open an old mine shaft, they think they can get within 100 feet of where the men were believed to be, Murray said.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude-4 earthquake near the coal mine at the same time the collapse occurred. Officials are not sure if the force of the collapse caused the seismic waves, or there really was an earthquake.
"All we can do is wait and pray and let the rescuers do their job and until we hear, we will continue praying with the families of the missing miners," said Brad King, a Utah state representative.