Utah mine owner: Rescue will take 3 days By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer

Utah mine owner: Rescue will take 3 days By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago



HUNTINGTON, Utah - Rescuers brought in heavy drilling equipment Tuesday to try to reach six coal miners trapped more than 1,500 feet below the surface, an effort that one of the mine's owner said would take at least three days.

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With no word on whether the six were still alive, crews worked through the night in shifts, with teams coming and going along the road leading to the Crandall Canyon mine in a forested canyon.

"Progress has been too slow, too slow," said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a part owner of the Crandall Canyon mine.

If all goes well, it will still take three days to reach the chamber where the miners are believed to be, he said.

"At that point we will know whether they're alive or dead," Murray said.

Even then, rescuers will have only a 2-inch hole into the chamber through which to communicate with the miners and provide them food or air, he said.

Crews moved only 310 feet closer to the miners in the first 30 hours after the cave-in, Murray said.

Attempts were halted overnight after a "bump" in which coal was dislodged from the mine's ribs, said Al Davis, an official with the Federal Mine Safety Health Administration.

The trapped miners were believed to be in a chamber 3.4 miles inside the Crandall Canyon mine. Rescuers were able to reach a point about 1,700 feet from that point before being blocked by debris.