Utah Mine Cave-In Traps Six

Miners' Condition Unknown as Initial Rescue Attempt Fails

HUNTINGTON, Utah, Aug. 6 -- Hundreds of rescuers struggled with falling rock and debris Monday in a desperate race to reach six coal miners trapped 1,500 feet below ground by a cave-in.

The collapse was so powerful that authorities initially thought it was an earthquake. If the miners survived it, a mine executive said, they could have enough air and water to last several days. More than 16 hours after the collapse, searchers were still unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were alive.

As the rescue stretched into the night, workers were unable to make significant progress and the initial effort was declared a failure.

"I'm very disappointed. That's one step backward," Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine, told reporters at an evening briefing.

The mining crew was believed to be about four miles from the mine entrance. Rescuers were working to free the men by drilling into the mine vertically from the mountaintop and horizontally from the side, Murray said. Officials estimated that drilling vertically could take three days.

If they are able to open an old mine shaft, Murray said earlier, rescuers believe they can get within 100 feet of where the men are trapped.

"The idea is to get a hole into where they are," he said. "They could be in a chamber 1,000 feet long or they could be dead. We just don't know right now."

Relatives of the miners waited for news at a nearby senior center. Many of the family members do not speak English, so Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon hugged them, put her hands over her heart and then clasped them together to let them know she was praying for them, she said.

"Past experience tells us these things don't go very well," said Gordon, whose husband is a former miner.

The mine uses a method called "retreat mining," in which pillars of coal are used to hold up an area of the mine's roof. When that area is completely mined, the company pulls the pillar and grabs the useful coal, causing an intentional collapse. Experts say it is one of the most dangerous mining methods.

University of Utah seismograph stations recorded seismic waves of 3.9 magnitude Monday in the area of the mine, causing speculation that a minor earthquake had caused the cave-in. Scientists later said that the collapse at the mine had caused the disturbance, but they revised that assessment hours later, saying an earthquake could not be ruled out and more information would be needed to determine conclusively what happened.