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Families Hope and Pray As Rescuers Dig for Trapped Miners

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 January 2006, 06:00 CST

By Andrew Buncombe in Tallmansville, West Virginia

The families of 13 coal miners who have been trapped underground for more than 35 hours in a shaft with toxic levels of carbon monoxide said they were 'clinging to every hope' that their relatives were still alive.

But casting a pall over the rescue efforts was the news that probes dropped into the shaft revealed the carbon monoxide levels in the mine shaft far exceed safe limits for breathable air.

Ben Hatfield, president of International Coal Group, which owns and operates the Sago mine, in Tallmansville, West Virginia, said rescue workers were still holding out hope that the miners had managed to barricade themselves in a safe spot, but he added grimly: 'No barricades or survivors were seen by anybody.'

'The impact of the carbon monoxide is by far the greatest danger to the miners,' Mr Hatfield said. Air-testing equipment had found carbon monoxide levels of 1300 parts per million, more than three times more than the maximum safe level.

As he spoke, teams of five rescuers took turns working their way into the tunnel, each working a four-hour shift before before being relieved.

Near the mine, the mood of hundreds of family members who gathered yesterday morning at the Sago Baptist Church changed considerably after officials briefed them.

'They're despondent, but holding on to hope,' said a friend of one of the miners. Terri Goff, a relative of one of the miners, described his reaction after the briefing. 'We got outside and cried a little bit and we realised that there's still hope,' he said. 'They could be stuck in another place and ... we can still find these guys, and we need to.'

The absence of miners near the area of the concentrated carbon monoxide offered relatives some hope their loved ones escaped to another area.

Rescuers drilled two holes into the mine yesterday in addition to a six- inch hole that was completed earlier. A robot that rescuers sent into the mine's entry tunnel ran into mud and other debris, slowing its progress

'The rescue teams are moving forward at an accelerated pace,' Mr Hatfield said. 'They're moving faster, performing better than the robot was.'

'We have determined that we can move forward at a quicker pace and do it safely ... by doing less construction at tunnels that branch off the main. We believe we were being overly conservative early on.'

The miners were trapped early on Monday after an explosion and are believed to be about 260ft below the surface at the end of an angled shaft about two miles long.

High levels of toxic carbon monoxide in the mine continue to be the worst danger for the men. 'We all continue to push forward as hard as we can so long as there is hope,' Mr Hatfield said. Rescuers on the surface pounded on the drill that bore the first hole into the mine in an attempt to signal to the trapped men that help was on the way. It was placed in an area where the miners were thought to be at the time of the blast, but there was no response. Views from a camera dropped through the drill hole were inconclusive, Mr Hatfield said.

Rescue teams, were said to have reached between 11,000ft and 13,000ft from the tunnel entrance, where the men are trapped, but were being slowed by water flowing into the holes they had drilled. The rescuers took the air sample after breaking through to an area near where they think the men might be. Mr Hatfield said the location was just a 'best guess'.

'Pray,' Mr Hatfield said. 'We will push forward as long as there is a shred of hope we can get our people out. This is a dangerous process.'

A second group of miners escaped the mine after hearing and feeling the explosion. Several tried to return to save their fellow workers and reached the 9,000ft mark before air-quality monitors warned there was too much carbon monoxide for them to continue safely.

The beginning of drilling was initially delayed by problems finding the precise spot to begin. Then, a sensitive microphone was lowered to listen for signs of life. The only real hope is that the men, who carried emergency breathing gear, have found safety in a catacomb where they are awaiting rescue.

Worried families of the miners have been regularly gathering together at Sago Baptist Church near the mine where they fortified themselves with memories of the dramatic rescue of nine men from a flooded coal mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania three years ago.

Source: Independent, The; London (UK)

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