Rescuers scramble to reach 6 miners

Rescuers continued to drill into a mountainside Wednesday, frantically working to make contact with the six miners trapped 1,500 feet underground in a collapsed mine shaft.

At the Crandall Canyon Mine, the miners participating in the rescue effort Wednesday were stone-faced as they hauled in wood beams and metal posts, preparing to go underground. The only time they showed emotion on their coal-blackened faces was when they spoke of their trapped colleagues.

"We're trying to rescue our brothers in that mine," Laine Adair said. "We're doing the very best we know how, and we definitely know how."

Officials who spoke to the Deseret Morning News on condition of anonymity identified the trapped miners as Manuel Sanchez, Kerry Allred, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Don Erickson. Family members confirmed some of the names and shared stories about the men.

Authorities don't know if the miners are alive or dead.

Rescue efforts

Rescuers have worked around the clock to reach the six men. Drilling rigs outside the mine bored two separate holes vertically through a mountain in an effort to reach the miners. Mine officials said Wednesday it is possible they could make contact with the miners today or Friday.

Mine owner Bob Murray took the son of one trapped miner and the brother of another underground to see the rescue efforts.

"They saw 40 to 50 men working and working very hard," Murray said Wednesday, sporting miner's gear and his face a little dirty from being in the mine. "They saw that (rescue crews) had all the machinery they need to get the job done."

This morning, Murray plans to take the two men by helicopter to the mountain drilling sites so they can see the above-ground rescue efforts and report to the miners' families.

Rescuers said significant progress has been made in the mountain drilling efforts. As of Wednesday night, mining equipment drilling a 2 1/2-inch hole had reached a depth of 875 feet. A larger hole, nearly 9 inches in size, is being drilled at a slower pace. It had reached a depth of 20 feet by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Both drills can be slowed by difficult, rocky terrain, which crews are likely to encounter, said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., which owns the mine.

"We're dealing with the unknown," he said. "We're dealing with equipment that has the potential of breaking down. We're dealing with Mother Nature. But we have the expertise to make sure that effort goes through."

Frustrated families

Relatives of the trapped miners said getting information on the rescue efforts has been, at times, difficult.

"They are frustrated," Emery County Sheriff Lamar Guyman told the Deseret Morning News after leaving a meeting Wednesday morning between mine officials and the families.

At one point during the meeting, some family members said Murray stormed out of the meeting.

"He got mad and left and came back," said Maria Buenrostro, the sister of miner Manuel Sanchez. "We were just trying to get answers to our questions."

Buenrostro said there was no interpreter for the Spanish-speaking families. Asked about his meeting with the families, Murray said he'd been thanked by many of them.

Family members are sequestered at Canyon View Junior High. The entire building has been leased by Murray Energy Corp., and access to the school has been blocked by sheriff's deputies and mine officials.

Emery School District business administrator Jared Black said the standard rental agreement for buildings to outside parties has a built-in hourly fee of $20. In this case, the rental deal for the school is open-ended.

The miners were in the middle of working a 12-hour shift early Monday when the mine shaft collapsed in an event so powerful it registered 3.9 on the Richter scale. Ten miners were inside the area at the time. Four managed to escape.

Murray contends that an earthquake caused the collapse. Seismologists have said their evidence points to the mine collapse as the seismic event.

Comforting words

Signs saying "God Bless Our 6" have popped up in town in a show of solidarity for the miners and their families. A candlelight vigil was held in Huntington Wednesday night for the miners. A Mass was also celebrated at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.

President Bush offered support for the rescue efforts. Speaking at the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday, the president announced he had called Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

"I told him the nation's thoughts and prayers are with the miners and their families and that the federal government will help in any way we can," the president said.

The governor was in Huntington again Wednesday to meet with mine officials, rescuers and family members of the trapped miners.

The family members of victims in the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia also reached out to the families of the trapped miners.

"We know the excruciating pain that the families are feeling. Our hearts and prayers are just with them," said Pamela Campbell, whose brother-in-law, Marty Bennett, was killed in the 2006 coal mine explosion.

She wrote an open letter to the families expressing the feelings of many of the Sago Mine families.

"Nobody out there, unless they have lost a loved one in the mines, knows what they're going through," she said. "We know that fear. We know that hurt. We know that uncertainty."

source:deseretnews.com