HUNTINGTON, Utah - 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 so powerful authorities questioned if it caused its own earthquake.[End Update]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.
More than 16 hours after the collapse, searchers had been unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were dead or alive. If they survived, Murray said, they could have enough air and water to last several days.
"They could have been struck by material and injured or killed, but we don't know that yet," he said.
Rescuers planned to spend the night bulldozing a road outside the mine to make way for a drilling rig that can punch holes large enough to improve ventilation and determine whether the men were alive, Murray said.
They also planned to continue drilling from inside and outside the mine, he said.
We will be following this story as it develops and bringing updates. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with those involved in this incident.
[UPDATE 7:06 PM cst]
6 trapped in Utah coal mine cave-in
By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer
Hundreds of rescuers broke through walls of rock Monday in a desperate race to reach six coal miners trapped 1,500 feet below ground by a cave-in so powerful authorities initially thought it was an earthquake.
Hours after the collapse, searchers had been unable to contact the miners and could not say whether they were dead or alive. If they survived, a mine executive said, they could have enough air and water to last several days.
Miners starting an evening shift joined the rescue effort.
"We're going to get them," said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine. "There is nothing on my mind right now except getting those miners out."
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.
If they are able to open an old mine shaft, he added, rescuers believe they can get within 100 feet of where the men are trapped.
Six coal miners trapped in Utah mine collapse
By James Nelson
Six miners were trapped in the collapse of a coal mine in central Utah on Monday and experts said initial reports of an earthquake might have been the rumbling from the mine's cave-in.
No contact had been made with the miners some 12 hours after the collapse. But the mine operator said rescue teams had come within 1,700 feet of the trapped miners and work was being done to drill from the top and horizontally.
"You have six miners who all could very well be alive," Utah Gov. Jon Hunstman told Reuters outside the Crandall Canyon Mine, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City.
"In fact, the experts tell us that they are and the rescue attempts are increasingly close to the cavern where they think they are located."
Robert Murray, president of Murray Energy, which owns the mine operator, told reporters he was certain of the location, but did not know the conditions surrounding the miners.
"They could be in a chamber that is 1,000 feet long or they could be dead," Murray said, adding that "time is of the essence."
Some 200 employees and four rescue teams were at work, he said. A helicopter was drilling from the top of the mine located in a steep, craggy canyon.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 4.0 earthquake on Monday morning at 2:48 a.m. (0848 GMT), about 16 miles northwest of Huntington and at the relatively shallow depth of five miles.
A quake of magnitude 4.0 is capable of causing moderate damage and it was initially believed the nearby mine collapsed after the seismic movement.
ANALYZING SEISMIC ACTIVITY
But the USGS National Earthquake Information Center said it was analyzing data to determine whether the shaking was produced by the collapse, which occurred around the same time.
"If you have a mine collapse, there will be a seismic component," Harley Benz of the NEIC told Reuters.
"We simply don't know at this point," he added, noting that the analysis could take up to 48 hours and perhaps longer.
Gov. Huntsman said he would meet with the miners' families at an undisclosed location. "Hope is in order at this point. Heavy doses of hope," he said.
The area in central Utah is known for its mining industry and has seen its share of tragedy. A fire at the nearby Wilberg mine killed 27 people in 1984.
"All we can do is wait and pray and let the rescuers do their job and until we hear, we will continue praying with the families of the missing miners," said Brad King, a Utah state representative from nearby Carbon County.
Concerns about mine safety in the United States resurfaced last year when 12 miners were killed in an explosion at International Coal Group's Sago mine in West Virginia.
In response, Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law last year.
(Additional reporting by Steve James in New York and Mary Milliken in Los Angeles)
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