Camera lowered into trapped miners' shaft

A second drill broke through to a Utah mine shaft today and a video camera was lowered inside, searching for the fate of six miners believed to be trapped nearly 2,000 feet below.

“I don’t know if it’s all the way to the bottom or not,” said John Baza, director of Utah’s Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.

Rescuers hoped to obtain some video to show the miners’ families who have been anxiously awaiting any sign of their loved ones since the Crandall Canyon mine, Huntington, collapsed early on Monday.

“We may not get a full view,” said Bob Murray, chief of mine co-owner Murray Energy Corporation. “There may be rubble in there ... and the camera may not see very far.”

A microphone lowered into a smaller hole yesterday yielded no sounds of life and an air sample taken through the two-inch hole detected little oxygen. Officials still remained hopeful that the men were somehow still alive.

“It’s always been a rescue mission,” Murray said after announcing the second drill hole was finished. “The activity is at a very fast pace. The progress is way too slow for me and I think for anyone.”

The uncle of one trapped miner said the families were given a brief update of the rescue efforts but received little new information from the mining company. Tomas Hernandez said they were only told work was progressing.

The first images from the video camera were not expected until later today. Murray said the camera could scan 300 feet in all directions, but the miners could be anywhere in a vast cavity 1,300 feet long by 500 feet wide.

Murray planned to meet with the miners’ families before providing more details.

Rescuers hoped to see anything positive after days of feverish work and no signs that the miners were alive. The first drill hole provided only disappointment when the microphone picked up no sounds and the air sample results were well below breathable.

The initial readings from the smaller drill hole showed oxygen levels above a very breathable 20%, but were samples from the bore hole itself and not the mine, Murray said.

When the drill was raised a few feet to clear it from debris, the oxygen readings fell to just over 7% – too low to sustain life – and have remained there, said Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

There was no sign of carbon dioxide to indicate that people below were exhaling. But mine officials kept up hope, saying the miners may have fled to a nearby 1,000-foot-long exit tunnel that could have more oxygen.

Mine officials said the drill drifted on its long descent through the hard sandstone and speculated that it had penetrated an old, sealed-off work area, where low oxygen levels would be expected. Further measurements showed the drill actually hit an active mining section.

Crews also continued their tireless horizontal dig toward the miners, struggling to remove the rubble from the mine shaft. It could take another week to actually reach the men and bring them out.

If the miners are alive, the nearly nine-inch-wide hole also would be big enough to send food and water down the 1,886 feet into the mine, Stickler said.

The mother of missing miner Don Erickson refused to be discouraged.

“We keep getting these other bits and pieces that are encouraging, so we’re going to hold on to that for now,” said the 69-year-old, who asked that her name not be used because she did not want to receive calls.

Around Huntington, a rugged town of around 2,000, the men’s plight evoked a similar, understated reaction, reflecting perhaps the stoicism of a community well-acquainted with the risks of digging coal deep below the earth’s surface.

Yesterday some 300 people attended a candlelight vigil honouring the workers. Outside the Huntington elementary school, residents left well-wishing notes on poster boards bearing large pictures of the miners.

Anika Farmer, 30, the wife of a coal miner from a different nearby mine, wiped away tears as she addressed the vigil crowd.

The mining company has not identified the miners, but they are thought to be a crew of veterans and novices. According to family and friends, they are: Carlos Payan, in his 20s; Kerry Allred, 57; Manuel Sanchez, 41; Brandon Phillips, 24; Luis Hernandez, 23; and Erickson, 50.

“When the news spread of this earthquake, the wives of all miners dropped to their knees in prayer and begged the Lord that this was not our husband, not our sons,” Farmer said, her voice cracking. “As the six families were located and told of who was in the mines, six wives couldn’t get off their knees.”

Payan had not worked very long at the mine and planned to return soon to Mexico, according to two friends. A sister lives in Huntington, and their parents traveled from Mexico after the cave-in.

“He wasn’t out a lot. He just worked and worked and worked,” said family friend Iliana Sebreros, 13.

Sanchez, 41, from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, has been a miner for 15 years.

Phillips and Allred had attended high school in Castle Dale, near Huntington.

Allred, who played in a rock band while in high school, has three children, all adults, acquaintances said. Marcey Wilson, a neighbour of Phillips in Orangeville, said her husband, who works at the mine, trained Phillips three weeks ago. “He was a sweet, sweet guy,” Wilson said.

Hernandez, originally from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, is married with a 1-year-old daughter, said his uncle, Tomas Hernandez. The miner has been working in US mines for about two years and in Crandall Canyon since June, he said.