Rescuers reach miners; all nine alive

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Posted 11:51PM on Saturday, July 27, 2002

SOMERSET, PENNSYLVANIA - Rescue workers made contact Saturday with some of the nine miners who have been trapped underground for three days via a telephone dropped through a pipe, according to rescue officials. Rescuers were seen hugging and giving the thumbs-up sign soon after dropping the telephone into the shaft 240 feet below. ``They're all down there. They're waiting to come up. There's nine of them. We talked to them on the telephone,'' a mud-caked rescue worker shouted up from the pit near where they dropped the communication device. After three days of desperate drilling, a giant auger broke through at about 10:16 p.m. to the dark and cramped chamber where the miners had been trapped since 9 p.m. Wednesday. Workers quickly set about removing the drill and preparing the shaft for a rescue capsule. 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. Dozens of family members had kept a vigil at a nearby fire hall and had made several trips to the rescue site. Officials met with them every hour to keep them apprised. Reaching the men, who were believed to be in a 4-foot high chamber, 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. Pumps had been draining the mine of some 50 to 60 million gallons of water for days, but it was not known how much, if any, water had been in the chamber where the miners were believed to be. 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. They suffered gut-wrenching setbacks, including a broken drill bit Friday that delayed the effort by 18 hours. Even though there had been no contact with the miners since Thursday when tapping was heard on an air hole, workers had remained optimistic they were alive. ``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.'' Atmospheric devices were in place to measure the levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane in the chamber, said Dave Lauriski, assistant secretary of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. 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 was being pumped into the chamber at a temperature of more than 100 degrees in the hope that it would warm the men. Officials said Saturday night that 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 after the drills punched through. A cap was placed over the rescue shaft at the surface to ensure the chamber remained pressurized. The miners were trapped when they broke the wall of an abandoned mine that maps showed to be some 300 feet farther away. As much as 60 million gallons of water rushed into the shaft where they were working. The miners were able to warn a second crew, which escaped. 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.