A True Miracle -- Trapped Miners Pulled From Pa. Shaft
By JUDY LIN, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 28, 3:22 AM ET
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) - Rescue workers on Sunday pulled all nine miners one by one from the watery, 240-foot-deep shaft where they had been trapped for three days, a jubilant reward for an effort fraught with one gut-wrenching setback after another.
After three grim days of frantic drilling delayed by broken bits and busted seals, defiant crews — with no signs of life to encourage them since Thursday — bored a giant auger through the ceiling of 4-foot high chamber at 10:16 p.m. Saturday. The breakthrough allowed workers to drop a telephone line to the miners through a small air pipe.
Moments later, rescuers were seen hugging and giving the thumbs-up.
Then the word came from an unidentified, mud-caked rescue worker who shouted up from the pit near where they dropped the communication device: "They're all down there. They're waiting to come up. There's nine of them. We talked to them on the telephone."
The first words from the miners were blunt. "What took you guys so long?" one of the miners asked, according to a rescuer.
Gov. Mark Schweiker then appeared before reporters late Saturday night and raised his fists over his head.
"All nine are alive," he said. "And we believe that all nine are in pretty good shape."
Ron Svonavec, of Somerset, was at the top of the rescue shaft when contact was first made. He said one of them said, "There's nine men ready to get the hell out of here. We need some chew."
The Sipesville Fire Hall, where the families had been gathering, erupted in celebration. Families cried and hugged and many were in the street with hands in the air.
"Wow. Wow. Wow. It's just unbelievable," said mine worker Lou Lepley, who has been staffing the mine entrance for three days. "I have no words."
Two hours later, the first miner was pulled out at about 1 a.m. and dropped onto a stretcher to the wild applause of rescuers. After that, miners were brought up in roughly 15-minute intervals; the last emerged at about 2:45 a.m.
When the fourth was pulled up in the yellow, cylindrical capsule, a smile was visible on his blackened face. Battered American flags were seen on the sides of some of their helmets. One miner's helmet flashlight was still aglow.
Randy Fogle, 43, of Garrett, was the first pulled from the 26-inch wide hole. He had reported feeling chest pains while still in the mine, but officials at the hospital where he soon arrived said he was slightly hypothermic but otherwise well.
As they emerged, the miners surprised medical personnel who had prepared to treat them for symptoms of hypothermia or the bends, an excruciating condition caused by sudden changes in pressure. Decompression chambers, ambulances and 18 helicopters were at the scene 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
In the end, however, little medical attention was required for the miners, who for days had been described as a tough breed that knows how to survive. Air was pumped into the chamber at a temperature of more than 100 degrees to warm the men before it was known they were alive.
All nine men were all taken to hospitals, where they were to remain for 24 hours and where they would be reunited with their families, officials said.
The miners became trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine at about 9 p.m. Wednesday, when they inadvertently broke into an abandoned, water-filled mine that maps showed to be 300 feet away. As much as 60 million gallons of water rushed into the shaft where they were working, and they were able to warn a second crew, which escaped.
"They knew what was coming. We didn't. They are the heroes. If not for them, there'd be dead bodies," said mine worker Doug Custer, among the group who escaped.
Rescue workers had remained optimistic the miners were alive, even though there had been no contact since midday Thursday, when tapping was heard on an air hole.
"If there's any slogan (among the rescue workers) it's 'nine-for-nine,'" Schweiker said before the drill broke through. "We're bringing up nine of our guys."
Reaching the men was sometimes painfully slow. Drilling a rescue shaft to the men, age 30 to 55, didn't begin until more than 20 hours after the accident, because workers had to wait for a drill rig to arrive from West Virginia. And drilling was halted early Friday morning because a 1,500-pound drill bit broke after hitting hard rock about 100 feet down, delaying the effort by 18 hours.
A second rescue shaft was started and it wasn't until Saturday that measurable progress was being made on both shafts.
The rescuers worked cautiously toward the miners because they feared compromising a hollowed-out section of coal seam believed to be about 4 feet high, which may have been partially flooded.
Before the drill broke through, 30 feet of water had been drained from the mine, the amount needed to give the trapped men more room and ensure the pressure wouldn't cause water to rise when the ceiling was pierced. A cap was placed over the rescue shaft at the surface to ensure the chamber remained pressurized.
The rescue attempt has transfixed the nation and the region, a hilly, rural area long dependent on coal and one that suffered tragedy during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The 40 passengers and crew on Flight 93 died when it was taken over by hijackers and crashed near Shanksville, about 10 miles from the mine. Schweiker said family members of Flight 93 victims sent an e-mail message to the families of the miners while they awaited word.
___ |
