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Rescue Crews Await Arrival of Drill in Pennsylvania

Aired July 25, 2002 - 14:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A 36-inch-wide hole could be the path to freedom for nine miners trapped 300 feet underground in southwestern Pennsylvania right now. Rescue crews plan to use a large drilling rig to dig the three foot wide portal, but right now, they are waiting for that rig to arrive from West Virginia. CNN's Brian Palmer joins us now from Somerset with the latest.
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Kyra. The rescue operation does continue here in Somerset County, Pennsylvania at the Quecreek Mine.

Now, indications, according to the state authorities are that at least some of the miners are still alive in what could be a pocket about 200-plus feet below the earth. There is no definite indication that these folks are still alive, but they have some seismic monitoring devices that they say have detected what they believe are human produced sounds, or sort of -- some sort of indications of life below the surface of the earth.

Now, we spoke with one member of the rescue operation, the Sipesville fire chief, Mark Zambanini.

MARK ZAMBANINI, SIPESVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: In any rescue situation like that, we have got to get in there and get them out. One thing we have to be careful of is we can't get sloppy and make a mistake. We have to do it in steps, we have to do it in coordination, and we have to work together.

PALMER: Now Chief Zambanini actually knows some of the men who are involved in the accident. He didn't want to get too personal about anything, but he expressed what might seem like boundless optimism. We have been told by some of the state authorities here that once the drill gets here -- it is not even here yet -- but once the drill gets here, it could take up to 18 hours to bore through the 200-plus feet of rock and dirt in order to get to the mine shaft. The chief saying, yes, it could take 18 hours, but it could take less time. So he is very optimistic and he is going right back to work -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Brian. Two questions for you. First of all, I am told that we're getting word that drill is about 15 minutes away. Now in -- with such a dangerous job, why isn't something like a drill of that magnitude closer by, in case something were to go wrong? I mean, mining accidents are not uncommon.

PALMER: Kyra, that's not a question that I can answer. I do know that the drill is coming from West Virginia, which is -- I mean -- it is also a huge coal mining state. Pennsylvania is a big coal mining state. I believe that they have smaller pieces of equipment here, but this is kind of a catastrophic sort of event, where we're told that roof collapses and things like that are more common occurrences, and they are things that they are prepared for. The miners who actually went down there have sort of the survival kit that one would expect to use in situations less severe than this. They have a mask and breathing apparatus that allows them to breathe for about an hour. But this truly is a very large and catastrophic event.

PHILLIPS: OK, Brian, these human-produced sounds that you have been talking about. How often do they -- are they trying to hear these sounds. Is this something that is ongoing, and when is the last time that they did hear some of these sounds?

PALMER: Well, Kyra, according to the federal agency that's site here, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, they have set up geophones that can detect very faint sounds very deep within the earth. We had a briefing from these folks at about 11:00, 11:30. They said that last time that they picked up those sounds was 11:00. We haven't talked to those folks then, so they could very well have detected other sounds or not. We just haven't talked to them. We're expected another briefing at 4:00 p.m.

PHILLIPS: All right. We look forward to that. CNN's Brian Palmer. Thanks, Brian.

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