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To: Jon Koplik who wrote (122365)	7/28/2002 2:17:04 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 152472

AP News -- Four Trapped Miners Pulled From Shaft July 28, 2002 4 Trapped Miners Pulled From Shaft By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:50 a.m. ET SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) -- Rescue workers on Sunday began pulling 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 that had been fraught with one gut-wrenching setback after another. The first, pulled out about 1 a.m., was dropped onto a stretcher to the applause of rescuers. After that, they began coming up in roughly 15-minute intervals; a fourth was pulled up in the yellow, cylindrical capsule at about 1:45, a smile visible through his blackened face. After crews struggled two giant drills for more than 74 frustrating hours without any signs of life, Gov. Mark Schweiker 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.'' Randy Fogle, 43, of Garrett, was the first to be pulled from the 26-inch wide hole. He had reported feeling ``some heart stress'' while still in the mine. After more than 74 hours of frantic drilling, a giant auger pierced the ceiling of 4-foot high chamber at 10:16 p.m., allowing workers to drop a telephone line to the miners through a small air pipe. Rescuers were seen hugging and giving the thumbs-up sign soon after dropping a telephone line into the shaft. 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 so long?'' one of the miners asked, according to a rescuer. Ron Svonavec, of Somerset, was at the top of the rescue shaft when contact was first made with the miners. 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.'' 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. Rescue workers had remained optimistic the miners were alive, even though there had been no contact with them 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. A second rescue shaft was started and it wasn't until Saturday that measurable progress was being made on both shafts. Rescue workers suffered several gut-wrenching setbacks, including a broken drill bit Friday that delayed the effort by 18 hours. 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. Helicopters were standing by to whisk miners from the scene 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh to hospitals, and medical personnel were set to immediately treat injuries or hypothermia. Nine decompression chambers also were at the scene. Medical personnel said the air pressure on the miners could be as much as is experienced at 40 feet underwater, and the men could suffer the bends -- bubbles in the bloodstream caused by rapid changes in pressure -- once they were rescued. Air had been pumped into the chamber at a temperature of more than 100 degrees in the hope that it would warm the men. 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 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. ^------ On the Net: State mine bureau: dep.state.pa.us Federal mine safety: msha.gov Copyright 2002 The Associated Press