Wolfman

I've heard of mines caving in instead of all that heavy equipment,
etc Dwarf mining would consist of real work and less danger
with axes, pics

3 rescue workers killed at Utah mine

HUNTINGTON, Utah - The search for six miners missing deep underground was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them.



It was a devastating turn for the families of the six men trapped in the Aug. 6 collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine and for the relatives of those trying to rescue them. It's not known if the trapped miners are alive.

"It just feels like a really hard blow to swallow after all we've been through the last week and a half and everyone trying to hope in their own individual way," Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon said in telephone interview Friday with CNN's "American Morning."

All rescue workers were evacuated from the mine Thursday evening and work underground was stopped. Asked if the search would be suspended, "that's something to be determined," said Rich Kulczewski, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesman.

The cave-in at 6:39 p.m. was believed to be caused by what seismologists call a "mountain bump," in which shifting ground forces chunks of rock from the walls. Seismologists say such a bump caused the Aug. 6 cave-in that trapped the six men more than 3 miles inside the central Utah mine.

The force from the bump registered a 1.6 at the University of Utah seismograph stations in Salt Lake City, said university spokesman Lee Siegel. It was the 20th reading at the university since the original collapse, which registered a 3.9 on Aug. 6.

"These events seem to be related to ongoing settling of the rock mass following the main event," Siegel said Friday morning. "I don't think I'm going too far to say that this mountain is collapsing in slow motion."

The initial collapse led to the frenetic effort 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.

It was not immediately clear where the rescuers were working or what they were doing when Thursday's bump occurred.

Underground, rescuers had advanced only 826 feet in nine days. Before Thursday's cave-in, workers still had about 1,200 feet to go to reach the area 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.

A day after the initial collapse, the rescuers were pushed back 300 feet when a bump shook the mountain and filled the tunnel with rubble.

The digging had been set back Wednesday night, when a coal excavating machine was half buried by rubble by seismic shaking. Another mountain bump interrupted work briefly Thursday morning.

"The seismic activity underground has just been relentless. The mountain is still alive, the mountain is still moving and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive toward these trapped miners," said Bob Murray, chief of Murray Energy Corp., the co-owner and operator of the Crandall Canyon mine.

On top of the mountain, rescuers were drilling a fourth hole on Thursday, aiming for a spot where devices called "geophones" had detected mysterious vibrations in the mountain. Both Kulczewski, the Labor Department spokesman, and Gordon, the mayor, said they believed that work continued after the accident.

"They're looking right now at finishing the drilling on the fourth hole, going through, and as I understood, that they're going to just be drilling the holes and ... putting the camera through and looking at these different ways to get in there, maybe through the top," Gordon told CNN. "But I don't think that they're going to be doing any mining down in the bottom again."

No details were available early Friday about the official cause of the rescuers' deaths.

One of the killed workers was an inspector for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, 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. One rescuer died there, one was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital, one was released and three were being treated, said Jeff Manley, the hospital's chief executive.

The second dead worker passed away at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, 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 Kulczewski, the Labor Department spokesman.

Gov. Jon Huntsman flew to the hospital in Price early Friday and planned to meet with mine safety officials later in the day to discuss the future of the rescue operation.

Huntsman said he did not want underground tunneling to resume, but that the decision rested with the MSHA.

"We're pushing for that to cease right now unless MSHA and others can guarantee that it can continue safely," he said. "Whatever happens, we're going to want to ensure that it is done safely and that may take a little while.

"We as a state don't want any more injuries," he added. "We've had enough."

Before the latest cave-in, officials said the third of three holes drilled reached an intact chamber with potentially breathable air.

Video images were obscured by water running down that bore hole, but officials said they could see beyond it to an undamaged chamber in the rear of the mine. It yielded no sign the miners had been there.

Murray said it would take at least two days for the latest drill to reach its target, in an area where a seismic listening device detected a "noise" or vibration in 1.5-second increments and lasting for five minutes. The drilling began Thursday.

Officials say it's impossible to know what caused the vibrations and clarified the limits of the technology.

The geophone can pinpoint the direction of the source of the disturbance, but it can't tell whether it came from within the mine, the layers of rock above the mine or from the mountain's surface, said MSHA chief Richard Stickler.

The "noise," a term he used a day before, wasn't anything officials could hear, Stickler said. "Really, it's not sounds but vibrations."

Officials stressed that the motion picked up by the geophones could be unrelated to the mine, even as they drilled the new hole in an effort to uncover the source of it.

Associated Press writers Chris Kahn, Alicia A. Caldwell and Jessica Gresko in Huntington, Ed White in Salt Lake City and Jennifer Talhelm in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

FRYandBENDER

I could be wrong, but I believe that with all the advances made in mining technology, safety has been greatly increased. There will always be accidents, but I think that todays miners have it a lot better than the old school miners had it.

__________________
Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. ... I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask no one to live for me, nor do I live for others. I covet no mans soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

Ayn Rand, Anthem.

Common insult examples and how to avoid them

Wolfman

accidents should not happen!

iTaliAN_ICe

but they do, and nothing will ever stop that in the foreseeable future.

dahermit

Wolfman, just what do you "know" about modern mining practices? Please list what you know in a post and where you "know" it from.

Wheeldog

Perhaps not, but accidents will always happen. Improved methods and better training may reduce the incidences of mining accidents, but they will not eliminate them. Human nature is a complicating factor. People are naturally careless, especially when there is a prolonged accident free period. They become complacent and careless. Nature is not as predictable as some seem to think. Slight shifts in geologic structures, water seepage, an unseen flaw in a support, etc. can cause catastrophic failures.

Underground mining a dangerous occupation, however there are others that are even more hazardous. Commercial fishing, logging, aircraft pilots, and even garbage collectors have even more dangerous jobs. The media jumps on a mining accident because of its emotional and dramatic impact that attracts readers and viewers. During the time I lived in Alaska I was personally acquainted with over 35 people who died in aircraft accidents. I walked away from two crashes. Fishing fatalities were so common that they usually got little more than a tiny mention in the news. All of these events are tragic, but the people who go into these lines of work know they have inherent danger.

Scribbler1

Why do I keep getting this vision in my head of little miners holding picks and singing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go...?

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

iTaliAN_ICe

He did call it "dwarf" mining...