Mine Rescuer's Death Unites Those Who Loved Him

PRICE, Utah, Aug. 17 -- The two women stood together in the parking lot of the hospital where the medics carried the body of the man who brought them together. Brandon Kimber, 29, was the first of the three rescuers to be declared dead on Thursday. He died about dinnertime under the rubble of the tunnel where he worked 12 hours a day drilling toward the six men he used to work beside.

"He worked with those men that's trapped right now for about 3 1/2 years," said Christina Shumway, the miner's girlfriend. "Then, after the collapse, he made it a point to go in and get his friends out."

"He was a good, good, good man, and he was a loving father," said Kristin Kimber, his ex-wife. "He died saving someone else last night, and that made it easier for us somehow."

Brandon Kimber and two other rescuers died in the catastrophic collapse of a mine wall that buried them and injured six others. The accident prompted federal mine safety officials to call a halt to the tunneling effort to reach six miners who have been trapped underground since Aug. 6. Officials said they wanted to wait until seismic experts arrive and determine whether it would be safe to continue tunneling. Attempts to locate the trapped men by drilling holes from above would continue, officials said.

"Yesterday, we went from a tragedy to a catastrophe," Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) said at a news conference.

The other dead were identified by officials as miner Dale R. Black, 48, and Gary Jensen, of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. The six injured men were miners for the Murray Energy Corp., digging through a wall of rubble that had filled a passageway to the trapped miners.

Since the rescue mission began, the mountain above the mine had been shifting and resettling, sometimes so violently that work was suspended. In 10 days, the crew had advanced 826 feet down a 2,000-foot corridor. Twelve men assigned to dig through the corridors complained several days ago that the work was too dangerous, Robert E. Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy and part owner of the mine, has confirmed. The men took up other work in the mine at their request.

"They wouldn't have been anywhere near it if there wasn't people on the other side," Keith Heasley, a mining engineering professor at West Virginia University, said of the rescuers who stayed on the job. "There's no doubt they were pushing the envelope on putting guys in there."

Richard E. Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety, defended the tunneling operation, saying the rescue plan reflected a consensus of government and academic experts. "Obviously, it was inadequate," he said.

Kimber and the crew were reminded of the perils with every heave of the stone under their feet.

"He knew it was bad," said Terry Byrge, 48, Shumway's stepfather. "It was throwing him around quite a bit."

But the young miner, a buff, handsome man in photographs with his children, entertained no ambivalence about going forward.