Letting go is difficult in mine cave-ins
Monday, August 27, 2007
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Joe Manchin was 21 when the Farmington No. 9 Mine blew up with a roar that shook the town nearby, sent a mushroom cloud of smoke and dust into the West Virginia sky and trapped 78 men.
One of them was John Gouzd, Mr. Manchin's uncle.
After nine days of trying to reach the men, Consolidation Coal, the mine's owner, gathered families in the company store for a meeting.
"They made the announcement that the mine would be sealed," Mr. Manchin, now West Virginia's governor, remembered. He can't recall who was speaking. He just remembers the words, then the groans and cries.
"I can only tell you there was no one in that room that would have agreed that you should close it," he said. "After you thought about it, it all made sense. If you were thinking at all, it wasn't rationally. After nine days you were numb."
Five years later, searchers found a few fragments of John Gouzd. Most of him remains in the mine, along with 19 other men who share a mountain for a grave.
The decision to call off the search at Farmington, a call fraught with passions that stretch from rage to resignation, has been played out time and again by rescue teams, mine safety officials and engineers who are sometimes called to apply mathematics to a scene of strife.
Last week, amid seismic shifts that killed three of the rescuers at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, where six miners became trapped in a massive collapse, someone in charge said, in effect, "Enough."
But yesterday, despite drilling a sixth hole and finding nothing, officials changed their minds and said the search will continue.
In an announcement that thrilled miners' families, federal and mine company officials said a seventh hole will be bored into the Crandall Canyon mine and a special robotic camera will be lowered into a hole drilled previously.
"We always have said that we won't leave anybody behind. We try to come after them. That is when we think that they're alive. But that is a real tricky situation," said Buddy Webb, president of the United States Mine Rescue Association.
Making the call, though, now is a team decision.
"I don't think it's up to the rescue teams anymore," said Tom Hoffman, vice president of Consol.
Instead, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which evolved as new mine-safety laws were enacted after Farmington, now makes the final call. Mr. Webb wasn't involved in the rescue at Crandall Canyon, but said the process there likely was two-pronged.
"MSHA would have a big part in it, but it's the mine owners, too, that kind of weigh that situation," he said.
The earlier decision was relayed in startlingly different ways. Mine Safety and Health Administration director Richard Stickler worded his explanation cautiously. Robert Murray, the mine's co-owner who used earlier news conferences to expound on everything from mine safety to his disbelief in global warming, bluntly told family members the men were dead.
Making the call to end a rescue, or to transform a rescue into a recovery, takes a skill set that is as yet undefined, say the people who specialize in saving the lost.
"There's no hard and fast science to that. Every case-by-case instance has to be determined," said Dave Pichotta, a deputy sheriff in San Bernardino, Calif., who heads up the search and rescue teams that fetch tourists and adventurers from caves and mountainsides.
Mr. Pichotta's group never officially calls off a search.
"We continue to put teams in there for training and other issues and just recover whatever we may be able to recover. We will end up telling someone that we have scaled the operation back," he said.
When Rod Henry and team members from Consol's Pennsylvania-based mine-rescue squad arrived at the Sago Mine in January 2006, one of the major issues became precisely when to begin the rescue attempt for 13 trapped miners. It was the flip side of the question about when to end it.
What they had in mind was a disaster five years earlier at the Jim Walters Resources Mine in Alabama, where a team of rescuers rushed into the mine after a catastrophic explosion and were hit by a secondary blast. Thirteen rescuers died.
"In mine rescue, we have three priorities," Mr. Henry said. The second and third deal with retrieving the living and securing the mine.
"The No. 1 priority," he said, "is team safety. We will not endanger the team to rescue people you're not sure are alive."
Rescue teams at Sago waited for hours for the air in the mine to clear. Only one of the 13 miners was found alive.
Even thought officials have decided to try again, repeated bore-hole drilling into the Crandall Canyon mine have showed little oxygen and no signs of life.
At Crandall Canyon last week, both MSHA and Murray Energy, the company that co-owns the mine, called in a team of engineering experts to assess the condition of the mine and the 2,000-foot mountain atop it to decide whether further tunneling was feasible.
From all accounts then, the answer was uniform: There was no reason to think a rescue tunnel could be dug without risk that it would collapse around the rescuers.
Keith A. Heasley, a mining engineering professor at West Virginia University, was part of a seven-member panel that spent hours examining the data that would feed last week's life-and-death decision.
"In one sense, I think we put our blinders on and we attacked it as an engineering problem: Is there a way to get in here where the roof's not going to fall on you?" Mr. Heasley said.
When the answer was "no," the panel's job became putting together a brief, written paragraph that measured risks and probability. That statement would become the basis for MSHA's decision last week to end the digging.
"It took hours to write a couple of paragraphs," Mr. Heasley said. "We all knew, I think, what the possible implications of that might be."
Monday, August 27, 2007
Union says miners called it in
Union says miners called it in
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/25/2007 04:08:28 AM MDT
HUNTINGTON - A miners union says it now represents workers at the nonunion Crandall Canyon mine on safety issues and in any discussion involving the rescue or recovery of six men trapped in the mine. Bob Butero, of the United Mine Workers of America office in Wheat Ridge, Colo., arrived at the mine's entrance Friday afternoon to serve a written notice to the Emery County Sheriff's Office. The notice said the union will represent miners from Crandall Canyon in future discussions with the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Butero said the union's discussions with MSHA will include how to proceed with the recovery of the six trapped miners. The union's presence does not mean Crandall Canyon workers have organized, he said. In an interview outside the sheriff's command post, Butero cited a section of federal law allowing a union to represent nonunion mine workers when two or more miners request it. He would not say how many miners requested the union's assistance. "They felt in this process there wasn't a representative of the miners," Butero said. "I guess they felt left out."
Mine ownership did not return a phone call seeking comment. The UMWA has been a vocal critic since the Aug. 6 collapse that trapped the six miners. The union criticized the owners of the Crandall Canyon mine for practicing "retreat mining," where coal and rock
HUNTINGTON - A miners union says it now represents workers at the nonunion Crandall Canyon mine on safety issues and in any discussion involving the rescue or recovery of six men trapped in the mine. Bob Butero, of the United Mine Workers of America office in Wheat Ridge, Colo., arrived at the mine's entrance Friday afternoon to serve a written notice to the Emery County Sheriff's Office. The notice said the union will represent miners from Crandall Canyon in future discussions with the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Butero said the union's discussions with MSHA will include how to proceed with the recovery of the six trapped miners. The union's presence does not mean Crandall Canyon workers have organized, he said.
In an interview outside the sheriff's command post, Butero cited a section of federal law allowing a union to represent nonunion mine workers when two or more miners request it. He would not say how many miners requested the union's assistance. "They felt in this process there wasn't a representative of the miners," Butero said. "I guess they felt left out." Mine ownership did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The UMWA has been a vocal critic since the Aug. 6 collapse that trapped the six miners. The union criticized the owners of the Crandall Canyon mine for practicing "retreat mining," where coal and rock pillars supporting the ceiling are removed, and federal regulators for allowing the practice. Retreat mining is suspected of being a factor in the Aug. 6 collapse and the one 10 days later that killed three men trying to reach the trapped men. This week, the UMWA wrote congressional leaders to request an independent investigation of the mine. Robert Murray, whose company is co-owner of the Crandall Canyon mine, has lambasted the UMWA and accused the organization of using the six trapped miners as an opportunity to organize the mine. Butero said the union believes the six trapped miners should not be left where they are but said he doesn't know the best way to remove them because he was not privy to all the information. "Our stance is that decision should not be taken lightly," Butero said. "It should be fully evaluated."
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6717367
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/25/2007 04:08:28 AM MDT
HUNTINGTON - A miners union says it now represents workers at the nonunion Crandall Canyon mine on safety issues and in any discussion involving the rescue or recovery of six men trapped in the mine. Bob Butero, of the United Mine Workers of America office in Wheat Ridge, Colo., arrived at the mine's entrance Friday afternoon to serve a written notice to the Emery County Sheriff's Office. The notice said the union will represent miners from Crandall Canyon in future discussions with the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Butero said the union's discussions with MSHA will include how to proceed with the recovery of the six trapped miners. The union's presence does not mean Crandall Canyon workers have organized, he said. In an interview outside the sheriff's command post, Butero cited a section of federal law allowing a union to represent nonunion mine workers when two or more miners request it. He would not say how many miners requested the union's assistance. "They felt in this process there wasn't a representative of the miners," Butero said. "I guess they felt left out."
Mine ownership did not return a phone call seeking comment. The UMWA has been a vocal critic since the Aug. 6 collapse that trapped the six miners. The union criticized the owners of the Crandall Canyon mine for practicing "retreat mining," where coal and rock
HUNTINGTON - A miners union says it now represents workers at the nonunion Crandall Canyon mine on safety issues and in any discussion involving the rescue or recovery of six men trapped in the mine. Bob Butero, of the United Mine Workers of America office in Wheat Ridge, Colo., arrived at the mine's entrance Friday afternoon to serve a written notice to the Emery County Sheriff's Office. The notice said the union will represent miners from Crandall Canyon in future discussions with the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Butero said the union's discussions with MSHA will include how to proceed with the recovery of the six trapped miners. The union's presence does not mean Crandall Canyon workers have organized, he said.
In an interview outside the sheriff's command post, Butero cited a section of federal law allowing a union to represent nonunion mine workers when two or more miners request it. He would not say how many miners requested the union's assistance. "They felt in this process there wasn't a representative of the miners," Butero said. "I guess they felt left out." Mine ownership did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The UMWA has been a vocal critic since the Aug. 6 collapse that trapped the six miners. The union criticized the owners of the Crandall Canyon mine for practicing "retreat mining," where coal and rock pillars supporting the ceiling are removed, and federal regulators for allowing the practice. Retreat mining is suspected of being a factor in the Aug. 6 collapse and the one 10 days later that killed three men trying to reach the trapped men. This week, the UMWA wrote congressional leaders to request an independent investigation of the mine. Robert Murray, whose company is co-owner of the Crandall Canyon mine, has lambasted the UMWA and accused the organization of using the six trapped miners as an opportunity to organize the mine. Butero said the union believes the six trapped miners should not be left where they are but said he doesn't know the best way to remove them because he was not privy to all the information. "Our stance is that decision should not be taken lightly," Butero said. "It should be fully evaluated."
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6717367
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Crandall Canyon mine tragedy timeline
Crandall Canyon mine tragedy timeline
* Aug. 6, 2:48 a.m.: Crandall Canyon mine collapse registers 3.9 magnitude. Six miners trapped, four escape.
* Aug. 6, afternoon: Rescue crews enter a tunnel parallel to the one the miners are thought to be in, only to find it has collapsed.
* Aug. 8, 10 p.m.: A 2 1/2 -inch drill penetrates the mine from above, but a microphone lowered into the cavity picks up no sound.
* Aug. 10, 12:10 a.m.: First air sample from 2-inch borehole has 20% oxygen; readings at 1:45 a.m. have it down to 7.2%, a level too low to sustain life.
* Aug. 11, 8:15 a.m.: Camera is dropped down a 8 -inch borehole. Images reveal a "survivable space," but no other signs of life.
* Aug. 12, 2 p.m.: New video images show mining equipment, but no signs of the miners. Rescue teams prepare to drill a third borehole, targeting tunnels deeper in the mine where the miners might have fled.
* Aug. 14, 6:30 p.m.: Miners have recaptured about 750 feet of the collapsed fresh-air tunnel, leaving 1,720 feet to go. They have endured a number of mountain "bumps" that threaten cave-ins and force rescue teams from the mine.
* Aug. 15, 10:15 a.m.: The third borehole intersects mine; microphone detects no sound.
Aug. 16, 6:39 p.m.: Some 30 feet of the main tunnel collapses. Three rescue workers are killed, six others hospitalized. All rescue efforts are suspended.
* Aug. 18, 9 a.m.: Fourth drill hole penetrates mine. No signs of life.
* Aug. 22, 8:30 a.m.: Fifth drill hole reveals a 6-inch space in a tunnel filled with rubble.
* Aug. 25, 6 p.m.: Sixth borehole, which officials say will be the last, hits the mine. No air space is detected in a tunnel filled with rubble. Mine co-owner Robert Murray announces he is shutting down the Tower Mine outside of Price, citing safety concerns.
* Aug. 26, 3 p.m.: Federal mine officials announce a plan to sink a seventh borehole, this one in the "kitchen" where miners store their lunch boxes. Also, a robotic camera will be lowered into an earlier hole to search for signs of life.
* Aug. 6, 2:48 a.m.: Crandall Canyon mine collapse registers 3.9 magnitude. Six miners trapped, four escape.
* Aug. 6, afternoon: Rescue crews enter a tunnel parallel to the one the miners are thought to be in, only to find it has collapsed.
* Aug. 8, 10 p.m.: A 2 1/2 -inch drill penetrates the mine from above, but a microphone lowered into the cavity picks up no sound.
* Aug. 10, 12:10 a.m.: First air sample from 2-inch borehole has 20% oxygen; readings at 1:45 a.m. have it down to 7.2%, a level too low to sustain life.
* Aug. 11, 8:15 a.m.: Camera is dropped down a 8 -inch borehole. Images reveal a "survivable space," but no other signs of life.
* Aug. 12, 2 p.m.: New video images show mining equipment, but no signs of the miners. Rescue teams prepare to drill a third borehole, targeting tunnels deeper in the mine where the miners might have fled.
* Aug. 14, 6:30 p.m.: Miners have recaptured about 750 feet of the collapsed fresh-air tunnel, leaving 1,720 feet to go. They have endured a number of mountain "bumps" that threaten cave-ins and force rescue teams from the mine.
* Aug. 15, 10:15 a.m.: The third borehole intersects mine; microphone detects no sound.
Aug. 16, 6:39 p.m.: Some 30 feet of the main tunnel collapses. Three rescue workers are killed, six others hospitalized. All rescue efforts are suspended.
* Aug. 18, 9 a.m.: Fourth drill hole penetrates mine. No signs of life.
* Aug. 22, 8:30 a.m.: Fifth drill hole reveals a 6-inch space in a tunnel filled with rubble.
* Aug. 25, 6 p.m.: Sixth borehole, which officials say will be the last, hits the mine. No air space is detected in a tunnel filled with rubble. Mine co-owner Robert Murray announces he is shutting down the Tower Mine outside of Price, citing safety concerns.
* Aug. 26, 3 p.m.: Federal mine officials announce a plan to sink a seventh borehole, this one in the "kitchen" where miners store their lunch boxes. Also, a robotic camera will be lowered into an earlier hole to search for signs of life.
Families struggle with latest bad news
Families struggle with latest bad news
Some still hold out hope while others just want to get the bodies out
By Kristen Moulton and Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune August 26, 2007
HUNTINGTON - Families of the six trapped men in the Crandall Canyon mine grappled with the grim news Saturday night that a sixth borehole that pierced into the mine found only rubble and no sign of the missing miners.
For some, it was confirmation of what their hearts and minds had slowly come to believe - that the men likely perished in the mine collapse on Aug. 6.
For others, the news was no reason to lose hope in a miracle.
Cesar Sanchez, whose brother, Manuel Sanchez, is among the six trapped miners, represents both.
“If there's a miracle, we'd like to see one,” said Cesar Sanchez of Price, calling Saturday's news “not what we were hoping for.”
Yet, like other family members, Sanchez's concern now is that his brother does not remain buried under 1,800 feet of sandstone, dirt and coal 15 miles west of Huntington.
Sanchez said the trapped miners' families want to see a seventh hole bored into the mine to try to locate any survivors.
Terry Erickson of Price said the final two boreholes into the mountain, which revealed no life, stripped him of hope his brother, Don Erickson of Helper, would be found alive.
“We've kind of given that up,” Erickson said Saturday evening.
“We just want to get them out of there,” added Erickson. “We need to get them out of there one way or the other.'”
The two brothers went to work in the Crandall Canyon mine about three years ago, but Terry Erickson said he quit last year after UtahAmerican Energy acquired the mine and began taking away bonus pay and holidays. He now works in a Wyoming coal mine and commutes home to Price on his days off.
Don Erickson, who worked at Helper Auto and for a coal-hauling company before taking the miner's job, remained at Crandall Canyon mine.
In Emery County to the south, Sheila Phillips said she doesn't know whether to use the past or present tense when talking of her son, Brandon, 24.
“He was beautiful,” she said Saturday. “He is beautiful. I guess I'm not sure yet.”
Brandon had been working at the Crandall Canyon mine just three weeks, lured by high pay that could have allowed him and his 5-year-old son to move out of his parents' Orangeville home.
Brandon, his mother said, would not be dissuaded from becoming a miner, even though he knew of the pain his family endured when his uncle, Ray Snow, died in the Wilberg mining disaster of 1984. Snow was Sheila Phillips' brother.
Brandon was just a 1-year-old at the time, and the tragedy was not a constant theme in the home, Sheila Phillips said.
“That was what he was determined to do.”
At Emery High School just down the road from the Phillips home, about 100 people gathered to raise money for the miners at a benefit organized by Utah's cowboy poets.
Former Brigham Young University and NBA basketball standout Shawn Bradley - an Emery High grad - played host at the event, and Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon accepted a framed poem for the three rescuers who were killed, the six who were injured and the six who are trapped.
Gordon said the information from the sixth borehole, though tragic in its implications, might help the families reach some resolution about the miners caught in the cave-in nearly three weeks ago.
“It would give me some comfort . . . that my loved one was not gasping for air, that he did not suffer,” she said.
In recent days, she said, the waiting and hoping was tearing at family members, filling the entire community with tension, sadness and grief.
“It was agony for those families,” she said.
After Saturday night's news, the families of Carlos Payan and Luis Hernandez stopped by Mission San Rafael, a Catholic church, outside Huntington. They heard about the prayers on their behalf from people near and far.
A friend said they were not ready to make a public statement, but that they remain hopeful.
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
Some still hold out hope while others just want to get the bodies out
By Kristen Moulton and Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune August 26, 2007
HUNTINGTON - Families of the six trapped men in the Crandall Canyon mine grappled with the grim news Saturday night that a sixth borehole that pierced into the mine found only rubble and no sign of the missing miners.
For some, it was confirmation of what their hearts and minds had slowly come to believe - that the men likely perished in the mine collapse on Aug. 6.
For others, the news was no reason to lose hope in a miracle.
Cesar Sanchez, whose brother, Manuel Sanchez, is among the six trapped miners, represents both.
“If there's a miracle, we'd like to see one,” said Cesar Sanchez of Price, calling Saturday's news “not what we were hoping for.”
Yet, like other family members, Sanchez's concern now is that his brother does not remain buried under 1,800 feet of sandstone, dirt and coal 15 miles west of Huntington.
Sanchez said the trapped miners' families want to see a seventh hole bored into the mine to try to locate any survivors.
Terry Erickson of Price said the final two boreholes into the mountain, which revealed no life, stripped him of hope his brother, Don Erickson of Helper, would be found alive.
“We've kind of given that up,” Erickson said Saturday evening.
“We just want to get them out of there,” added Erickson. “We need to get them out of there one way or the other.'”
The two brothers went to work in the Crandall Canyon mine about three years ago, but Terry Erickson said he quit last year after UtahAmerican Energy acquired the mine and began taking away bonus pay and holidays. He now works in a Wyoming coal mine and commutes home to Price on his days off.
Don Erickson, who worked at Helper Auto and for a coal-hauling company before taking the miner's job, remained at Crandall Canyon mine.
In Emery County to the south, Sheila Phillips said she doesn't know whether to use the past or present tense when talking of her son, Brandon, 24.
“He was beautiful,” she said Saturday. “He is beautiful. I guess I'm not sure yet.”
Brandon had been working at the Crandall Canyon mine just three weeks, lured by high pay that could have allowed him and his 5-year-old son to move out of his parents' Orangeville home.
Brandon, his mother said, would not be dissuaded from becoming a miner, even though he knew of the pain his family endured when his uncle, Ray Snow, died in the Wilberg mining disaster of 1984. Snow was Sheila Phillips' brother.
Brandon was just a 1-year-old at the time, and the tragedy was not a constant theme in the home, Sheila Phillips said.
“That was what he was determined to do.”
At Emery High School just down the road from the Phillips home, about 100 people gathered to raise money for the miners at a benefit organized by Utah's cowboy poets.
Former Brigham Young University and NBA basketball standout Shawn Bradley - an Emery High grad - played host at the event, and Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon accepted a framed poem for the three rescuers who were killed, the six who were injured and the six who are trapped.
Gordon said the information from the sixth borehole, though tragic in its implications, might help the families reach some resolution about the miners caught in the cave-in nearly three weeks ago.
“It would give me some comfort . . . that my loved one was not gasping for air, that he did not suffer,” she said.
In recent days, she said, the waiting and hoping was tearing at family members, filling the entire community with tension, sadness and grief.
“It was agony for those families,” she said.
After Saturday night's news, the families of Carlos Payan and Luis Hernandez stopped by Mission San Rafael, a Catholic church, outside Huntington. They heard about the prayers on their behalf from people near and far.
A friend said they were not ready to make a public statement, but that they remain hopeful.
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
Bodies of victims in Inner Mongolia colliery blast retrieved
Bodies of victims in Inner Mongolia colliery blast retrieved Xinhua -
ChinaAugust 26, 2007
HOHHOT, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of seven miners killed in a coal mine gas explosion in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local work safety watchdog said on Sunday.
The bodies were lifted out of the Liyuan coal mine in Holin Gol City in the east of the region at 5:17 a.m. Sunday, the regional work safety bureau said.
A gas blast occurred around 2:10 a.m. Saturday in the Liyuan mine when 23 people were working underground. Seven were killed and the rest managed to escape.
Local police have detained several people from the mine, and are hunting for another runaway shareholder of the mine.
Investigators said the mine was under technical renovation and it should not have been operating when the accident happened.
All coal mines in the city were ordered to halt production for safety checks after the blast.
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
ChinaAugust 26, 2007
HOHHOT, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of seven miners killed in a coal mine gas explosion in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local work safety watchdog said on Sunday.
The bodies were lifted out of the Liyuan coal mine in Holin Gol City in the east of the region at 5:17 a.m. Sunday, the regional work safety bureau said.
A gas blast occurred around 2:10 a.m. Saturday in the Liyuan mine when 23 people were working underground. Seven were killed and the rest managed to escape.
Local police have detained several people from the mine, and are hunting for another runaway shareholder of the mine.
Investigators said the mine was under technical renovation and it should not have been operating when the accident happened.
All coal mines in the city were ordered to halt production for safety checks after the blast.
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
Ex-miner is troubled by disaster
Ex-miner is troubled by disasterDeseret News - Salt Lake City,UT,USAAugust 26, 2007
Blake Hanna of Price knows this about mining: Disasters happen. In 1963, at the age of 27, he was among 25 miners trapped inside the Cane Creek potash mine in Moab after a gas explosion. Hanna spent 19 hours underground before being one of seven who survived.
In 1984, at the age of 48, he was part of a Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) team that helped organize rescue attempts at the Wilberg mine outside Price after fire trapped and killed 27 miners.
Now retired at 71, Hanna has spent the month watching and waiting as the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster near Huntington has killed three rescuers and left six miners trapped.
"There's not a family in Carbon-Emery County who hasn't lost someone in the mines," says Hanna.
Such familiarity, however, doesn't make it any easier.
Like most folks with mining roots, Hanna has opinions about Crandall Canyon.
Because of where he's been and what he's seen, people tend to listen to him.
Among other things, he's saying this:
• It was "bad mining practices" that caused the cave-in.
• The buried miners need to be recovered, even if it means hauling out their bodies so they can be buried again.
• And if there's anything positive that can come out of this, it's a wake-up call that miners themselves need to blow the whistle on unsafe mine operations before tragedies occur. Citing the federal mining act, amended in 1977, Hanna says, "Miners have full rights to report anything they believe is endangering them to a hotline number, a toll-free number, that is posted at all the mines and does not identify who calls.
"We read about families who say they (the Crandall Canyon miners) were fearing for their safety," says Hanna. "Well, why didn't they use the hotline?"
Hanna notes that Crandall Canyon, in its way, was placing its own hotline calls. Seismic activity recorded as long ago as last March showed the mountain was unstable.
"They'd been warned. It seems like you're always pre-warned," says Hanna. "And yet they went right on and didn't learn."
Hanna has great empathy for the six trapped miners. He remembers those 19 hours he spent entombed in 1963 like it was yesterday.
"God saved me, and the rescuers went through pure hell to get to me, you couldn't say enough about them," he says.
That said, he's convinced the Crandall Canyon six, if still alive, "would never want someone to give up their life to save theirs."
Current conditions, in his opinion, are too dangerous.
"Over time, seismic activity should subside," says Hanna. "Then it could be feasible to send somebody down in a capsule. But right now we need to be logical."
Hanna points to the Wilberg disaster, where bodies weren't recovered for more than a year. But they were recovered.
"Families need to have that closure," says Hanna. "And there's plenty of money to do it. (Crandall Canyon Mine co-owner) Bob Murray is the 12th-largest coal mine operator in the United States. And it was his company that got those men trapped in the first place."
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
Blake Hanna of Price knows this about mining: Disasters happen. In 1963, at the age of 27, he was among 25 miners trapped inside the Cane Creek potash mine in Moab after a gas explosion. Hanna spent 19 hours underground before being one of seven who survived.
In 1984, at the age of 48, he was part of a Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) team that helped organize rescue attempts at the Wilberg mine outside Price after fire trapped and killed 27 miners.
Now retired at 71, Hanna has spent the month watching and waiting as the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster near Huntington has killed three rescuers and left six miners trapped.
"There's not a family in Carbon-Emery County who hasn't lost someone in the mines," says Hanna.
Such familiarity, however, doesn't make it any easier.
Like most folks with mining roots, Hanna has opinions about Crandall Canyon.
Because of where he's been and what he's seen, people tend to listen to him.
Among other things, he's saying this:
• It was "bad mining practices" that caused the cave-in.
• The buried miners need to be recovered, even if it means hauling out their bodies so they can be buried again.
• And if there's anything positive that can come out of this, it's a wake-up call that miners themselves need to blow the whistle on unsafe mine operations before tragedies occur. Citing the federal mining act, amended in 1977, Hanna says, "Miners have full rights to report anything they believe is endangering them to a hotline number, a toll-free number, that is posted at all the mines and does not identify who calls.
"We read about families who say they (the Crandall Canyon miners) were fearing for their safety," says Hanna. "Well, why didn't they use the hotline?"
Hanna notes that Crandall Canyon, in its way, was placing its own hotline calls. Seismic activity recorded as long ago as last March showed the mountain was unstable.
"They'd been warned. It seems like you're always pre-warned," says Hanna. "And yet they went right on and didn't learn."
Hanna has great empathy for the six trapped miners. He remembers those 19 hours he spent entombed in 1963 like it was yesterday.
"God saved me, and the rescuers went through pure hell to get to me, you couldn't say enough about them," he says.
That said, he's convinced the Crandall Canyon six, if still alive, "would never want someone to give up their life to save theirs."
Current conditions, in his opinion, are too dangerous.
"Over time, seismic activity should subside," says Hanna. "Then it could be feasible to send somebody down in a capsule. But right now we need to be logical."
Hanna points to the Wilberg disaster, where bodies weren't recovered for more than a year. But they were recovered.
"Families need to have that closure," says Hanna. "And there's plenty of money to do it. (Crandall Canyon Mine co-owner) Bob Murray is the 12th-largest coal mine operator in the United States. And it was his company that got those men trapped in the first place."
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
Nearly 300 workers laid off as Murray shutters Tower mine
Nearly 300 workers laid off as Murray shutters Tower mine
Murray says it will remain closed 'until I can make it safe'
By Nate Carlisle and Mike Gorrell The Salt Lake Tribune
August 26, 2007
PRICE - Crandall Canyon mine co-owner Robert Murray began telling nearly 300 workers Saturday they will lose their jobs because he plans to shutter the Tower mine.
Murray began what miners say he described as 270 temporary layoffs Saturday afternoon. Miner Jared Simms, a 32-year-old father of four from Helper, said Murray told miners the Tower mine would remain closed "until I can make it safe."
Miners say Murray met with about 50 people during the afternoon shift at the West Ridge mine, apologizing for the disaster at Crandall Canyon mine. But he also said it has become impossible for him to do business in Utah.
Simms said Murray told the miners some of the Tower employees would be transferred to West Ridge while others would have the chance to work in Murray Energy's coal mines in Ohio and Illinois. Simms quoted Murray as saying the company would pay for the miners' way back to the Midwest and for their board in a bunkhouse, but that miners would have to pay their own way back to Utah if they wished to visit their families during their one week off after working three weeks.
Murray also asked miners not to tell their wives or families about the layoffs until he told the other miners.
After Murray's statement, Simms said, West Ridge employees went outside and awaited word from mine general manager Darrell Leonard, who told them individually which ones were fired and which ones weren't.
"I walked in and he said 'you're laid off,' " Simms said. "I walked downstairs, handed my rescuer's [breathing apparatus] to the bosses downstairs, grabbed all my stuff and was told not to tell anybody about this meeting until 9 a.m. [today], including my wife," Simms said.
"How can I come home early with all my work stuff and not tell my wife?" he wondered. "How am I supposed to tell my kids I don't have a job now. How am I supposed to do all this, keep my mouth shut for 16 hours. That's what he wanted me to do. I'm not very happy about it."
In the meeting to announce the layoffs, Simms said, Murray lambasted Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for the criticism he has lobbed at Murray and his mining operation. He also criticized The Salt Lake Tribune for its coverage. Murray also railed against Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who has asked for federal documents related to the Crandall Canyon mine.
In an Aug. 22 letter to Huntsman, Murray said miners' jobs could be in jeopardy.
" . . . It is unfortunate that I must be distracted from our rescue efforts to write this private letter to you, but, if you persist in your statements and your course of action, you governor, are going to jeopardize the 700 jobs in Carbon and Emery County," he wrote. "I cannot maintain them alone, and I definitely cannot do it if I'm going to be your whipping boy."
Murray declined to discuss the layoffs with The Tribune Saturday night. Murray owns the Tower mine, and co-owns the West Ridge mine in Carbon County and the Crandall Canyon mine where Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Alonso Hernandez, Juan Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez have been trapped since an Aug. 6 collapse.
The Tower mine has leased reserves of about 19.3 million tons, according to the latest Utah Coal Report, which was released by the Utah Geological Survey last week. This year, about two years after the Pinnacle portion of the mine was closed, the Aberdeen section was expected to yield about 1.8 million tons of coal.
About 215 miners were expected to be on the payroll to do the job, according to the report, which is based on projections submitted by companies to the state.
But the report also hinted at some trouble at the mine - basically getting to the coal safely. One issue is the coal seam's depth, now about 2,800 feet below the mountain's surface and planned to be another 400 feet deeper, "deeper than any longwall machine has ever successfully been used in the United States.
In addition, the Coal Report notes: "To mitigate "bounce" problems, large barriers of coal are left between longwall panels for additional support." The mine also has ventilation problems that were forcing a decrease in production this year.
At the same time, Murray Energy has secured leases on federal land for about 16.5 million tons of coal. To mine it, the company would have to mine below the old mine workings of another mine.
Work is expected to begin on that in 2010 on this Kenilworth seam. And longwall mining was to begin in 2012.
Brad King, a Democrat who represents Price in the state House, said he had been told the Murray Energy Corp. had assembled a team, including company specialists from the East, to evaluate the mining plans at the company's three Utah mines. The Mining Safety and Health Administration was also being consulted, he said.
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
Murray says it will remain closed 'until I can make it safe'
By Nate Carlisle and Mike Gorrell The Salt Lake Tribune
August 26, 2007
PRICE - Crandall Canyon mine co-owner Robert Murray began telling nearly 300 workers Saturday they will lose their jobs because he plans to shutter the Tower mine.
Murray began what miners say he described as 270 temporary layoffs Saturday afternoon. Miner Jared Simms, a 32-year-old father of four from Helper, said Murray told miners the Tower mine would remain closed "until I can make it safe."
Miners say Murray met with about 50 people during the afternoon shift at the West Ridge mine, apologizing for the disaster at Crandall Canyon mine. But he also said it has become impossible for him to do business in Utah.
Simms said Murray told the miners some of the Tower employees would be transferred to West Ridge while others would have the chance to work in Murray Energy's coal mines in Ohio and Illinois. Simms quoted Murray as saying the company would pay for the miners' way back to the Midwest and for their board in a bunkhouse, but that miners would have to pay their own way back to Utah if they wished to visit their families during their one week off after working three weeks.
Murray also asked miners not to tell their wives or families about the layoffs until he told the other miners.
After Murray's statement, Simms said, West Ridge employees went outside and awaited word from mine general manager Darrell Leonard, who told them individually which ones were fired and which ones weren't.
"I walked in and he said 'you're laid off,' " Simms said. "I walked downstairs, handed my rescuer's [breathing apparatus] to the bosses downstairs, grabbed all my stuff and was told not to tell anybody about this meeting until 9 a.m. [today], including my wife," Simms said.
"How can I come home early with all my work stuff and not tell my wife?" he wondered. "How am I supposed to tell my kids I don't have a job now. How am I supposed to do all this, keep my mouth shut for 16 hours. That's what he wanted me to do. I'm not very happy about it."
In the meeting to announce the layoffs, Simms said, Murray lambasted Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for the criticism he has lobbed at Murray and his mining operation. He also criticized The Salt Lake Tribune for its coverage. Murray also railed against Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, who has asked for federal documents related to the Crandall Canyon mine.
In an Aug. 22 letter to Huntsman, Murray said miners' jobs could be in jeopardy.
" . . . It is unfortunate that I must be distracted from our rescue efforts to write this private letter to you, but, if you persist in your statements and your course of action, you governor, are going to jeopardize the 700 jobs in Carbon and Emery County," he wrote. "I cannot maintain them alone, and I definitely cannot do it if I'm going to be your whipping boy."
Murray declined to discuss the layoffs with The Tribune Saturday night. Murray owns the Tower mine, and co-owns the West Ridge mine in Carbon County and the Crandall Canyon mine where Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Alonso Hernandez, Juan Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez have been trapped since an Aug. 6 collapse.
The Tower mine has leased reserves of about 19.3 million tons, according to the latest Utah Coal Report, which was released by the Utah Geological Survey last week. This year, about two years after the Pinnacle portion of the mine was closed, the Aberdeen section was expected to yield about 1.8 million tons of coal.
About 215 miners were expected to be on the payroll to do the job, according to the report, which is based on projections submitted by companies to the state.
But the report also hinted at some trouble at the mine - basically getting to the coal safely. One issue is the coal seam's depth, now about 2,800 feet below the mountain's surface and planned to be another 400 feet deeper, "deeper than any longwall machine has ever successfully been used in the United States.
In addition, the Coal Report notes: "To mitigate "bounce" problems, large barriers of coal are left between longwall panels for additional support." The mine also has ventilation problems that were forcing a decrease in production this year.
At the same time, Murray Energy has secured leases on federal land for about 16.5 million tons of coal. To mine it, the company would have to mine below the old mine workings of another mine.
Work is expected to begin on that in 2010 on this Kenilworth seam. And longwall mining was to begin in 2012.
Brad King, a Democrat who represents Price in the state House, said he had been told the Murray Energy Corp. had assembled a team, including company specialists from the East, to evaluate the mining plans at the company's three Utah mines. The Mining Safety and Health Administration was also being consulted, he said.
___________________________________________________________United States Mine Rescue Association
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