Montcoal, April 09: US searchers desperately hoping to find up to four survivors of a mine blast that killed 25 went back underground early Friday, while workers above pumped nitrogen into the earth to flush out dangerous gases that have kept rescuers at bay.
The search teams were wearing oxygen masks and carrying four spares on the slim chance the men had made it to airtight emergency rooms and were waiting to be saved more than three days after the nation’s deadliest mine disaster in decades.
“We committed to the families we were going to get into the chambers within 96 hours and we’re doing everything in our power to do that,” said Kevin Stricklin, a coal administrator from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Air holes drilled into the Upper Big Branch mine have ventilated lethal carbon monoxide, highly explosive hydrogen and methane, which has been blamed for the explosion, but not enough to make the atmosphere safe, so nitrogen tankers were to start pumping.
“I believe the families are relieved that this process has started,” Governor Joe Manchin said.
By the time teams reach the area where the survivors might be, the nitrogen pumping will have started, Stricklin said. They will be wearing breathing gear. Stricklin estimated it should take the teams an hour and a half to reach the search area.
Once methane levels inside the mine have dissipated, the nitrogen will be sucked back out so the air inside the mine will return to normal, Stricklin said.
On Thursday, searchers spent four hours working their way by rail car and on foot through the mine and came within 500 feet of a rescue chamber where possible survivors may be, but turned around when the air became too toxic. When told to abandon their mission, they were angry, but their safety was paramount, said Chris Adkins, chief operating officer for mine owner Massey Energy Co.
Teams were headed first to an airtight chamber that has at least four days worth of food, water and oxygen. Besides finding possible survivors, crews will eventually be recovering the 18 known dead. Seven bodies have been recovered and two miners survived with injuries in the worst coal mine disaster in more than two decades.
–Agencies