Pennsylvania Miners Pulled to Safety

July 28, 2002

SOMERSET, Pa.  — After hours of determined drilling and agonizing setbacks for rescuers, nine miners emerged early Sunday in surprisingly good condition from the cramped, flooded shaft where they spent three days fighting for their lives. 


"Their condition is remarkable given the situation they were in," Dr. Russell Dumire, a trauma surgeon at Comemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, where six of the miners are hospitalized, said Sunday morning. 

The miners spent their 77-hour ordeal immersed in 3-4 feet of water, struggling to keep warm. 

"When one would get cold the other eight would huddle around the person and warm that person, and when another person got cold the favor was returned," Dumire said. 

The miners also huddled around a pipe funneling down warm air. 

"Getting the pipe down with the warm air was probably life saving," Dumire said. 

He also credited their decision to stick together. 

The nine, who sustained minor hypothermia but showed no evidence of decompression sickness, "decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group," he said. 

"All they've asked for is warm blankets, food — and they want to go home," he said. 

Three of the miners were at Somerset Hospital in satisfactory condition, a spokesman said Sunday morning. 

When they were contacted, one of the miners said, "What took you guys so long?" according to a rescuer. 

Determined crews with no signs of life to encourage them since Thursday bored through the ceiling of the 4-foot high chamber at 10:16 p.m. Saturday. The breakthrough allowed workers to drop a telephone line to the miners 240 feet below and confirm they were alive. 

Ron Svonavec, of Somerset, was at the top of the rescue shaft when contact was first made. He said one of the miners said, "There's nine men ready to get the hell out of here. We need some chew." 

Gov. Mark Schweiker appeared before reporters late Saturday night and raised his fists over his head to announce the men were alive. 

The Sipesville Fire Hall, where the families had been gathering, erupted in celebration. Families cried and hugged and many spilled into the street with hands in the air. 

"Wow. Wow. Wow. It's just unbelievable," said mine worker Lou Lepley, who has been working at the mine entrance for three days. "I have no words." 

Though the miners had not been heard since Thursday because of the noise of rescue equipment, mining company spokesman John Weir said they "were tapping the whole time they were down there." 

The first miner was pulled out at about 1 a.m. to the wild applause of rescuers and dropped onto a stretcher. After that, miners were brought up in roughly 15-minute intervals; the last emerged at about 2:45 a.m. 

The fourth miner had a bright smile on his blackened face as he was pulled up in the yellow, cylindrical capsule. Some of the miners had chipped American flag decals on the sides of their helmets. One miner's helmet flashlight was still aglow. 

Randy Fogle, 43, of Garrett, was the first pulled from the 26-inch wide hole. He had reported feeling chest pains while still in the mine, but hospital officials said he was slightly hypothermic but otherwise well. 

The miners surprised medical personnel who had prepared to treat them for symptoms of hypothermia or the bends, an excruciating condition caused by sudden changes in pressure. Decompression chambers, ambulances and 18 helicopters were at the scene 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. 

All nine were pronounced in fair to good condition early Sunday after they were taken to hospitals, where they were to remain for 24 hours and were reuniting with their families. 

For days the men had been described as a tough breed. Air was pumped into the chamber at a temperature of more than 100 degrees to warm them before anyone at the surface knew they were alive. 

The miners became trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine at about 9 p.m. Wednesday, when they inadvertently broke into an abandoned, water-filled mine that maps showed to be 300 feet away. As much as 60 million gallons of water rushed into the shaft where they were working, and they were able to warn a second crew, which escaped. 

"They knew what was coming. We didn't. They are the heroes. If not for them, there'd be dead bodies," said mine worker Doug Custer, among the group who escaped. 

Drilling a rescue shaft to the men, age 30 to 55, didn't begin until more than 20 hours after the accident, because workers had to wait for a drill rig to arrive from West Virginia. Drilling was halted early Friday morning because a 1,500-pound drill bit broke after hitting hard rock about 100 feet down, delaying the effort by 18 hours. 

A second rescue shaft was started and it wasn't until Saturday that measurable progress was being made on both shafts. 

Before the drill broke through, 30 feet of water had been drained from the mine to give the men more room and ensure the pressure wouldn't cause water to rise when the ceiling was pierced. A cap was placed over the rescue shaft at the surface to ensure the chamber remained pressurized. 

The rescue attempt transfixed the nation and the region, a hilly, rural area where the hijacked Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11. 

Schweiker said family members of Flight 93 victims sent an e-mail message to the families of the miners while they awaited word. 

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