Monday, 20 August 2007 01:42
Utah Mine: Situation Dismal
According to the Associated Press Utah officials are now
conceding that the six coal miners caught in a cave-in are probably dead and
may forever be entombed in the still-quivering mountain, all but abandoning the
unflinching optimism they've maintained publicly for nearly two weeks.
Air readings from a fourth hole drilled more
than 1,500 feet into the mountainside found insufficient oxygen to support
life, said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., co-owner of the
Crandall Canyon Mine. "It's likely these miners may not be found,"
Moore said, expressing a marked shift in tone in his mine officials'
assessments of the chances the men would be rescued, hopes they had maintained
even after three rescuers were killed and six more hurt Thursday in another
"bump" inside the mountain.