Three miners were killed last night at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah and six others were injured as they worked to reach another six miners who have been trapped in the mine for 12 days. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
HUNTINGTON — A catastrophic failure Thursday in a Crandall Canyon mine tunnel killed three men, injured six others and cast grave doubt on whether a rescue mission to find six missing miners could ever resume.
Those killed and injured were part of a perilous operation to find the missing miners, who were caught in a similar failure on Aug. 6. They were burrowing through a rubble-choked tunnel when they were caught in seismic “bump,” which can cause the walls of a mine tunnel to implode, at about 6:35 p.m. Thursday, said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesperson for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
We do not know what caused the new cave-in, but it seems apparent that the mine’s condition remains very dangerous, susceptible to further cave-ins caused by either continued drilling or natural seismic activity. The mine owner insists it’s the latter, describing the mountain’s activity as “relentless,” while seismologists are doubtful. But I thought this was interesting:
Among those injured were Crandall Camine employees and two MSHA managers who were involved in the rescue effort in the mine, which has been unstable for months. The fate of the six missing miners is unknown, despite unceasing efforts to locate their whereabouts and to reach them through the enormous mine’s main entrance. [my bold]
God help all those involved.
In the meantime, Keith Olbermann last night reported on the man in charge of federal mine health and safety, Richard Stickler. Stickler received a recess appointment by Bush over the objections of Democrats and mine worker/labor groups and Arlen Specter. HuffPo has the commercial-less MSNBC Countdown video.
Photo: Utah American Energy Inc./Handout/Reuters, from August 14, 2007.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
yo
was this suppose to go up now? [Mod: yes]
“…rescue effort in the mine, which has been unstable for months”
Life is cheap here in the Soviet Union.
Not as many spectacular photos as the bridge but the body count is close.
“How many more mining deaths?”
I’ll bet the annual number nationwide would drop precipitously if Mr. Murray were tried, convicted and imprisoned for ten years on criminal negligence charges….
This is the key qustion. But, I haven’t heard the Dems yet come out to say that enough is enough we need to return to a regulated industry.
Richmond @ 6
It might hurt their chance for re-election.
I have said from the beginning that I don’t think they will recover those miners. I don’t know why I thought that but now with the deaths of those miners trying to recover the six, it seems more likely. Are several of the six, undocumented workers? Are they trying to cover up even more stuff. There is something strange about this collapse….even beyond the obvious.
Leave it to George W. Bush to appoint a man named Stickler who turns out to be anything but…
alibe @ 8
I have said this before here as well. But don’t we have information now on their families. Anyone know if the family members have been identified, and what that suggests about the workers?
The Senate will be voting, as early as today, on S.1105, the so-called “hate crimes” bill. Under S.1105, acts of crime committed against members of certain protected classes – including those who identify themselves by their “actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity” – would warrant more intense prosecution and greater penalties than the very same acts committed against heterosexuals.
this is a cut paste from their web site they are asking members to call their senators and give it to their “Pastors”.
What happened to seperation of Church /State….
raven @ 7
How? Isn’t the nation as a whole deeply concerned about the harm being perpetuated by an industry that is not protecting its workers? I think this could be a huge issue, like all the hotel maids who are screwing up their back with the huge new mattresses. I think this could be a no lose no lose situation.
darclay @ 11
the rest of the page was their usual rant.
G’morning. (EPU’d and brought up from last thread)The NYT editorial page has it right, and the Republican consumer-directed healthcare policy is shown in action. Three more miners dead, and the mountain is still crumbling as the weight of it on the remaining coal pillars causes catastrophic failure.
From mountains on stilts of coal to Constitutions on stilts of torture: Padilla is convicted, but the jury never had a full deck with which to make the determination.
Bush has completely gutted the country. Enjoy your breakfast.
darclay @ 11
Umm, S.1105 has been in committee since April 12th. The Senate is recessed for the month. And, who are “they,” and “their web site,” and is this germane to the current post–dead miners? I’m thoroughly confused by this.
Scarecrow…
Why do you post two articles so close together? It doesn’t allow the pups to bark it up on each one as they jump to the top of the page.
Can you slow the great posts down?
N=1 good analysis. Lot of things crumbling here, including the housing and mortgage markets. It’s all coming down.
darclay @ 11
This sounds like the old peace maker is a bomb issue. Awful.
And by the way there is a fabulous piece up on Talking Points Memo on someone in the U.S. embassy in Lebanon who has repeatedly used hate speech and physical threats in his ongoing vilification of Moslems in the area. This leveled at the pollster Zogby among others. Why aren’t these nuts brought into public scrutiny more often. In fact this is the sort of thing I hear from well educated, otherwise smart neighbors, acquaintances than the other way around. It is a pretty powerful piece in terms of why this whole war thing is continuing, and the Surge continues to get the play it does.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
N=1 @ 14
Well said. This is what happens when you elect a C-student in history with an MBA who treasures loyalty over competence. I hope this is the beginning of the avalanche that buries the GOP in November 2008.
This is just horrible. You think Murray will cuddle a couple of orphan kittens and weep for the cameras and Our Elite Media will suck it up? I’m betting.
montag @ 15
You are right. Not in session. It actually sounds like a joke foisted on the left by someone on the right (Rove?). No?
This is just tragic.
egregious @ 17
Lessee, credibility around the world, the troops on the ground, the credit and banking system, the markets, mines, infrastructure, household budgets… lots of crumbling.
Maybe it’s Americathon, for real, only the Native Americans don’t make out better than the rest of us….
montag @ 15
Scarecrow asked for the info. should have made that a little clearer, sorry for the confusion.:)
Thunderbird @ 9
No Miner Left Behind
mack @ 25
No Miner’s Behind Left, I would think….
Jane Hamsher @ 20
The Pump Handle blog has been excellent at explaining, analyzing and presenting the history and current state of coal mining, safety and the political intersections.
And you can hang your hat on this as an exemplar for all of public health policy at this point. The pandemic flu planning by HHS is a total sham. It’s all politics over health science all the time. there is bird flu in France as we speak. All if takes in migrating birds to mingle with infected domestic poultry, and then bird flu is on its way around the globe.
The US has no vaccine, no uniform distribution system – for anything – we use the just-in-time model of material management which relies on timely air, rail and truck delivery with no ability to stockpile or warehouse supplies. HHS instructed people NOT to stockpile 90 days worth of food, potable water, hygiene supplies and energy sources – well, guess what? Pandemic flu will come in waves, and sheltering in place will have to be done for 90 days – just as a start – in order to get through the first wave of mass deaths.
Notice how the media has swiftly adopted the industry term “seismic bump”? It sounds so natural, so harmless. So not like a cave-in. Because those are bad, and scary-sounding.
Richmond @ 21
It was an action alert sent by AFA to me,yesterday. I know that the Senate is taking “their much deserved vacation” lol
Christy has a new thread ready.
As I previously commented, Murray should have the words lying mother&*#*@& stamped on his forehead.
mornin scarecrow and firedogs
nothing to add but to ask an edit fairy to correct the “need need” typo one thread down;
perris,
Done. Thank you.
I think the most important part of ko’s piece is lost
the fact that mine safety has been IMPROVING over generations, over democrat AND republican administrations
UNTIL this moron gets in office and recess appoints industry hit men
and that’s what they are too becuase the industry KNOWS people will die by their depraved decisions and lack of supervision…they know as the sun will rise people will die because of their new definitions of standards and how they should be enforced
yet they cost analyse and say “so what, we’ll make some extra doe”
hit men
To N=1 @ 27,
Have you read The Great Influenza by John Barry? It’s an awesome book. It’s one of those books that is a social history book in addition to presenting the science behind the influenza.
There is a lot of great information in there how the public officials and newspapers lied to the American people so not to create mass hysteria forgetting that people can what’s going on with their own eyes. And, when what they see doesn’t match with what they read the government looses ALL credibility and and capability to manage the situation.
As I read this book last summer it felt exactly like what is going on today. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
I regard the mine owner as a murderer. He belongs in prison for the rest of his life.
The Bush appointee Stickler is a murderer and belongs in prison.
I have zero tolerance for anyone who knowingly jeopardizes the lives of working Americans in the way this mine owner has (and the tragedy is – he will continue to do so!).
I urge everyone to revisit the excellent Barbara Kopple documentary:
Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
Mine safety? To George Bush, that’s a contradiction in terms, like good government and fair taxes.
George Bush longs for the Gilded Age of Robber Barons. The Carnegies and Rockefellers accumulated their wealth by being more ruthless than their competitors, by breaking what few rules of the game there were (and getting away with it), by paying no taxes, and by treating their workers like driftwood, incurring no liability for endangering them, and breaking them bodily when they formed unions to demand better pay and conditions. (That was a “danger” they responded to swiftly.)
George Bush has done all he could to return American business – especially energy and extraction industries – back to its Gilded Age, no- or low-tax, no- or low-liability past. He has stuffed his government with hacks and lobbyists who rewrite the regs they can and who don’t enforce the ones they can’t, most especially when it comes to collecting fees and penalties.
“Voluntary” efforts are his creed, since the criminal law, by his definition, seems to have no application to bidness. Except that workers don’t volunteer to work; they have no choice and they do essential jobs, providing essential goods and services. Mr. Bush will never reconsider his views; Congress shouldn’t be so hesitant to grow up and do its job.
Chinese Coal Mines Order more Mine Communications Systems
—
Activemine Wireless Technology May Become Coal Mine Safety Standard
[epu’d from tula connell’s
fine post and thread on
100 years of mining, yesterday:]
i’m posting tonight as
miner’s brass ID tag number 4733,
from long-ago high school/
college summer stints as a
hard-rock miner in a non-union mine. . .
first — excellent stuff tula and scarecrow!
next — this tragedy just claimed
the lives of three more miners — these
ones being rescue workers, in the drift. . .
i will wait until morning, to hear
c.e.o. murray’s reaction, and his
demeanor — but it better be pretty
damned contrite.
there is a fairly compelling scientific
case –- from a geological/mining engineeering
point of view — that at 1,800 feet of
overburden/cover, these miners were simply
sent, by their superiors, to a depth BEYOND
the structural limits of such a mining
operation — either the pillars were too
thin, or the drifts were correlatively
too wide — but in either case, coal
seams are simply prone to collapse under
the sheer weight of 1,800 feet of overburden.
it used to be that 1,500 feet was considered
dangerously “too deep” in this region — and
the missing six men were reportedly last known
to be working almost 300 feet below that.
this is an unfolding — and nowhere
nearly ended — tragedy. . .
if you believe in a higher power, ask for
some “mo jo” for these rescuers/miners — the
ones actually doing the work — and the ones
still missing — they’re gonna’ need it,
come tomorrow morning. . .
post scriptum: a missing miner is still
missing, until his or her brass ID tag
is found — it matters not whether any
of these workers were documented; it matters
that they are missing. and we need to
force c.e.o. murray (and the mines div.
of o.s.h.a., if need be) to go get them.
either rescue — or recovery. no one
wants a family member to be left
entombed at 1,800 feet.
p e a c e
I heard Rudy Giuliani spent more time in that mine than the miners did.
Nina Katarina @ 40
That’s just too funny.
I agree with nolo about the extreme pressures at those depths. This is a very deep coal mine for North America.
Another factor could have been the haste with which rescuers may have been trying to reach the trapped men, and not themselves following the best safety procedures.
It would have been different had there been a fire or explosion. Then they would have ultra-cautious.
lisadawn82 @ 41
i am trying very hard to smile
at this one — i know how
ironicmake that moronic. . .
rudy’s comments were. . . but it
is people like rudy, and c.e.o. murray,
we have to thank for three dead rescuers,
and six still-missing coal miners — all
buried 300-feet-beyond the point considered
structurally safe, just a mere 20 years ago. . .
great riff, though!
keep ‘em comin’. . .
p e a c e
CNN still reporting uncritically about seismic activity at the mine. Failing to note that is caused by the mine itself.
Bob Murray is the modern day coal baron.Just as in early 1900s,a mans life is worth nothing,but dont hurt that mule it costs money.There was always a barefoot man waiting outside the mine for a job. After Sago nothing has changed.Officals stand in front of the camera and say “we will learn from this”. Crap,your too stupid to learn anything,it keeps happening.Put a man in space and cannot find a man in a hole on earth. Thanks MSHA your a real help. Send more to their death .