Trapped 240 feet underground in a flooded mine for three days, one thought kept creeping back into Blaine Mayhugh’s mind: He didn’t kiss his wife goodbye before he left for work.
As more than 150 rescue workers and neighbors above ground struggled to reach them, he and eight other coal miners fought to keep their heads above the cold water, huddled together for warmth, and hoped.
“It was the only day in my life I never kissed my wife before I went to work. It had to be the day,” he said Sunday, breaking down into sobs as he stood with his arms around his wife, Leslie.
In a rescue that transfixed the nation, all nine miners were pulled safely from the Quecreek Mine in rural western Pennsylvania after water from an abandoned mine flooded the shaft where they were working.
A desperate rescue operation with tons of heavy equipment and 18 medical helicopters finally paid off when rescuers reached the miners Sunday morning and pulled them up a narrow shaft, one by one, in a yellow cylindrical capsule.
“What took you guys so long?” the miners said when they spoke to rescuers for the first time. They reportedly asked for chewing tobacco and beer — which doctors wouldn’t allow. And they were ravenously hungry.
At the rescue site, workers cheered and danced, and the Sipesville Fire Hall, where the families of the men had been gathering, burst into celebration at the news they were all alive.
As each was slowly raised, one by one, through the narrow hole in a 7-foot-tall yellow cage, at least two gave a thumbs up. Their coal-covered faces managed smiles. Rescuers greeted them with applause and shouted out nicknames.
But underground, Mayhugh described a nightmarish scene: The men tied themselves together so they would “live or die as a group.” On Thursday, when the water in the shaft was rising, he asked his boss for a pen.
“I said, ’I want to write my wife and kids to tell them I love them,”’ said Mayhugh, choking back tears.
“Everybody had strong moments,” he said. “At any certain time maybe one guy got down, and then the rest pulled together and then that guy would get back up and maybe somebody else would feel a little weaker. But it was a team effort. That’s the only way it could’ve been.”
All nine were immediately taken to local hospitals; six were released on Sunday. Three remained hospitalized, including Randy Fogle, who has a history of heart problems and complained of chest pains while in the mine.
One of the miners was briefly in a decompression chamber after experiencing early symptoms of the bends, an excruciating condition caused by sudden changes in pressure, said Dr. Russell Dumire, a trauma surgeon at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, where six of the men were taken.
Also under observation was Mayhugh’s father-in-law, Thomas Foy, 51.
Foy told family members “he’ll never go underground again,” said his daughter, Tonya Butler, 26.
Though they were covered in coal dust and their heavy-duty clothes were soaked through, the miners surprised medical personnel who had prepared to treat them for symptoms of hypothermia or the bends. Decompression chambers, ambulances and helicopters were at the scene 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh — the same rural area where the hijacked Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11.
In a small, close-knit community still fresh from that tragedy, the happy ending brought smiles across town and crowds to the site. Restaurant and gas station signs trumpeted “Nine Alive!” and “Prayers Answered.”
The miners became trapped about 9 p.m. Wednesday, when they inadvertently broke into an abandoned, water-filled mine that maps showed to be 300 feet away.
Mayhugh said a 4-foot wall of water — as many as 60 million gallons — came crashing through the breached wall.
“We tried to outrun it, but it was too fast,” he said.
But they were able to warn a second crew, which escaped.
“They are the heroes. If not for them, there’d be dead bodies,” said mine worker Doug Custer, among the group who escaped.
The trapped miners spent roughly five hours in the water, at one point attempting to break through another wall to try to bring the water level down. Instead, the level rose, forcing them to swim in their heavy miners’ clothes, Mayhugh said.
The miners also huddled around a pipe funneling down warm air.
Drilling a rescue shaft to the men began more than 20 hours after the accident when a drill rig arrived from West Virginia. Drilling was halted early Friday morning because a 1,500-pound drill bit broke after hitting hard rock about 100 feet down, delaying the effort by 18 hours.
A second rescue shaft was started, and it wasn’t until Saturday that measurable progress was being made on both shafts.
David Hess, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, promised a joint federal-state investigation to help determine why underground maps apparently showed the abandoned Saxman Mine some 300 feet away from where the miners were working.
“There was a lot of roller-coaster, but I was upbeat the whole time,” said Randy Popernack, a cousin of Mark Popernack, one of the trapped men. He was at home calling distant relatives with the good news.
“I am mining people,” he said. “Never give up. Never give up.”
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On the Net:
State mine bureau: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/dms/dms.htm
Federal mine safety: http://www.msha.gov/welcome.htm
