Jul 26, 2002 By Amy Karpinsky 5 min read

SOMERSET – A horde of media representatives were in rural Somerset County Thursday, the second time many of them were there in less than a year. On Sept. 11, the media descended on Shanksville, about 10 miles northeast of Somerset, where the hijacked Flight 93 crashed.

Thursday, the scene was about 10 miles northwest of Somerset, where rescuers were working feverishly to save nine miners who were trapped in the Quecreek Mine.

The chief of the Sipesville Volunteer Fire Department was keenly aware of what happened in Shanksville and how good intentions proved to be too much to handle.

He made a plea to everyone not to send any more food for the family members or rescue workers.

“We don’t want this to be another Shanksville where we are throwing away food,” said the chief.

Meanwhile, as rescue workers did their part to help get the miners out alive, police and others worked to ensure that the privacy of the miners’ families was protected.

The media staging area was located in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart plaza a few miles from the mine entrance. The media area also was located a few miles from the Sipesville Volunteer Fire Department, where the family members were gathered.

The fire department is located in a small village in the midst of rolling hills and fields in rural Somerset County, and unless someone was a family member, they were not permitted inside the fire department.

Across Route 601 from the media staging area, cows grazed in a field, unaffected by the busy activity going on around them.

A state police vehicle blocked the road leading to the mine.

Officials were cautiously optimistic that the men could be found alive.

During a press briefing inside an empty former Giant Eagle a few miles from the mine site, Black Wolf Coal Co. spokesman John Weir said all of the men are experienced miners. However, at that time, the men had been trapped hundreds of feet underground for more than 18 hours and rescuers hadn’t heard a definite tapping from the men since shortly before noon.

Weir said the non-union miners ranged in age from 30 to 55 years old and were all from Pennsylvania. He said the men were mostly from the Somerset County area and a couple could possibly live in Indiana County.

Weir said some of the miners who were working when the men were trapped were at the site and had been spending time with family members.

He said the fact that many of the rescue workers know some of the men trapped below “makes them go harder.”

Officials for RAG American Coal and Consol Energy, which operate mines in Greene and Washington counties, said Thursday afternoon that none of their mine rescue teams had been sent to Somerset to assist in rescue efforts, but they said that teams would be sent if a request was made.

Also, in a statement, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts said the union has offered to assist state and federal officials in their rescue efforts.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the trapped miners and their families and co-workers,” Roberts said. “Although this mine is not represented by the UMWA, this union is committed to protecting all coal miners and other workers.”

Officials estimated that it could take up to 18 hours to drill a 30-inch hole down to the trapped miners, who were likely sitting in a dark, cold, compressed air pocket. Drilling didn’t begin until about 6 p.m. The coal seam where the men are trapped is only 48 to 52 inches deep.

The specialized drill was brought in from Clarksburg, W.Va., for the operation and didn’t arrive on the scene until 2:30 p.m.

After the 30-inch hole is drilled, plans initially are to send down an empty rescue basket in the hopes it comes back up with someone inside.

If it doesn’t, one person will go down to search for survivors. The basket can hold two people.

Joseph Sbaffoni of the state Bureau of Deep Mine Safety said rescuers were able to rescue survivors who found air pockets in a similar accident in the eastern part of the state years ago, but he wasn’t familiar with any rescue efforts in the local area in the recent past.

David Hess, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said Thursday evening that crews had been able to slow the rise of the water inside the hole and were working to drill more holes to pump out even more water. Authorities estimate that 50 million to 60 million gallons of water was in the abandoned mine that was ruptured.

Sbaffoni, a resident of Fairchance, said pumps were taking out 10,000 gallons per minute.

Danny Sacco of the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration’s special medical support unit said the main concern was hypothermia and decompression. The temperature was estimated at 55 degrees.

Sacco said medical workers were concerned about the possibility of the men’s body temperatures lowering. He said normally after four or five hours of a lowered body temperature, someone is in “serious trouble.”

However, he said they were hopeful that the men were up and moving around and not in deep water.