Search is over (Utah mine)

Source: Deseret News

Search is over: 'Eagle we mourn for those we lost'
Hopes crushed: Families are upset
By Stephen Speckman and Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
Published: Sept. 1, 2007 12:51 a.m. MDT

HUNTINGTON — The search for six miners trapped inside a collapsed part of the Crandall Canyon Mine is over.
Federal authorities suspended the rescue effort indefinitely, leaving the miners' families devastated. There is no word of when — or even if — there will be any later effort to recover the bodies of Don Erickson, Kerry Allred, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips, Luis Hernandez and Manuel Sanchez.

"I think our trapped miners are going to be in there a long time," Colin King, a lawyer hired by the miners' families, said Friday. "I think this means that MSHA (the Mine Safety and Health Administration) has concluded the miners are dead."

Hopes of finding any signs of life faded when workers dropped a robot with a camera attached down one of the seven boreholes on Friday. All they found was debris, mud and water. It was the same outcome that they found Thursday, when they drilled the seventh hole 1,865 feet through a mountain into rubble.

The families are all, understandably, heartbroken.

Read more: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695206433,00.html

They should have closed this book long ago.

Playing with those families' emotions like they were dime-store yo-yos.

Source: Associated Press

By BROCK VERGAKIS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Signs of prayer and support for six trapped miners remained on display Saturday as residents of central Utah's coal belt struggled with the realization that the men would not be found alive.


Emery County Sheriff Sgt. Dusty Butler looks down as he walks past six yellow ribbons at the entrance to the Crandall Canyon Mine, Friday, Aug. 17, 2007, in northwest of Huntington, Utah. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)


"It's a hard thing. Some are coping with it better than others," said Colin King, a spokesman and lawyer for families of the six miners trapped nearly four weeks ago in a collapse. "They're still dealing with the fact they have to accept now that these miners are not going to be recovered any time soon - that they've died, in all likelihood."

Rescue efforts at the Crandall Canyon Mine were suspended indefinitely Friday.

A thunderous mountain shudder early on Aug. 6 caused mine ribs to shatter, trapping Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez. It is not known whether they survived the initial collapse.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070901/D8RCVLF80.html

:cry:

nt

Send him into the mine.

Mine safety expert Jack Spadaro charges Crandall Canyon, Utah, mine owner Robert Murray with murder and the Bush administration's Mine Safety and Health Agency (MSHA) with aiding and abetting.

"None of this should have happened," Spadaro said, anger pushing aside his gentle West Virginia twang. "Murray murdered those miners in the collapse and, then, in the rescue. The rescuers were working in the same conditions that caused the collapse. MSHA is complicit. Murray is a criminal."

< snip >

The coal rescuers removed coal trying to reach the trapped men. That coal is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which went to the company, Murray Energy. There was no second entrance or escape passage at Crandall Canyon.

< snip >

... Despite warnings and citations issued by MSHA in May, Murray Energy ordered miners to keep digging using the "retreat mining" technique.

"Murray bought this mine in August '06," Spadaro continued. "The previous company had ceased operations because they decided it was too unsafe. They had been mining coal using the responsible longwall method for years, and the only coal left was in the barrier pillars. They are huge, 120 feet high and 80 feet wide. That was the coal, or the profits Murray wanted. It's mining on the cheap."

< snip >

In early September, the U. S. Senate will hold hearings on the disaster.


http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/11626/1/388

:wtf:

A thunderous mountain shudder early on Aug. 6 caused mine ribs to shatter...

I talked to some friends from mining families in Utah. They believe these men were probably retreat mining. The way it was explained to me (in probably an overly simplified way) is retreat mining amounts to nothing more than sheer greed by trying to eeek out the very last bit at the expense of safety.

They say in a case such as this, it's not really a cave in as much as....the sides of the mine come in on you and the floor buckles up. They were very angry and recommended early on the best course of action would be to erect a marble monument at the site.

Did I mention they detest the owner?

for mine owners or corporate controllers - is that it destroys all evidence of safety violations, corner-cutting, and other compromises of workers' protections.

"Thunderous mountain shudder...caused mine ribs to shatter..."

Sure sounds like the Corporate Media Cartel is buying into the sleazeball mine owner's scientifically-discredited claim that an earthquake, not unsafe conditions at the mine, caused the collapse.

Anything to prop up the corporate power structure and the culture of cronyism, eh?

:argh:

I am so glad you had the exact same reaction I did. I could not believe when I read those words...

"Thunderous mountain shudder...caused mine ribs to shatter..."

I'm not sure if you read my post above but my friends explained, in fairly graphic, laymen what most likely occurred to those poor men. They didn't mention "thunderous shudder" and "shattered ribs".

The evil mountain shuddered! Maybe I'll calm down in a bit a write the author of that bullshit. Perhaps, he should do some research on retreat mining and catastrophic results.

:banghead:

Retreat mining is a term used to reference the final phase of an underground mining technique known as room and pillar mining. This involves excavating a room, or chamber while leaving behind pillars of material for support. This excavation is carried out in a pattern advancing away from the entrance of a mine. Once a deposit has been exhausted using this method, the pillars that were left behind initially are removed, or 'pulled', retreating back towards the mine's entrance. After the pillars are removed the roof (or back) is allowed to collapse behind the mining area. Pillar removal has to occur in a very precise order in order to reduce the risks to workers, due to the high stresses placed on the remaining pillars by the abutment stresses of the caving ground.

Short analysis: do the pillar removal incorrectly, those high stresses collapse the pillars. End of miners.

he gave people hope knowing recovering the people would never happen, having played this game others died and were injured... shame on him......

Maybe the search should never have started--especially since it resulted in additional deaths.

:cry:
rocknation

have not seen any

that three of them were illegal immigrants. Later a friend in Utah said he thought two of them were illegal immigrants. We suspect that is why there is very little being said about the individuals. No doubt, their immigration status will allow Murray to further shirk any responsibility for what occurred.

since illegal immigrants seem to be the "invisible people", why would it be different in a tragedy? :(

But two were very young recent immigrants from Mexico which is certainly suggestive.

LITTLE people who die in these things, right?

and yes, that is sarcasm. It's the only way to cover my real anger.