Rescue effort suspended at Utah mine

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug 18, 2007 -- UPI

Drillers tried from above ground Saturday to reach six trapped miners in Utah after the deaths of three rescuers suspended work underground indefinitely.

The drillers were boring a fourth hole in the cavern where the six miners were believed trapped. Three previous holes yielded no sign of the men, alive or dead, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday.

Underground attempts to reach them were suspended indefinitely Friday, a day after a second tragedy at the Crandall Canyon Mine killed three rescue workers and injured six others.

"We don't want to close the door and say no one can ever go in underground," said Kevin Stricklin, who oversees coal mines for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. "But we need to suspend it until we're confident that we won't have another situation like we did."

Two miners and a mine safety inspector died Thursday when pressure inside the mountain blew out 60 feet of wall, spraying the rescuers with coal and rock. Fellow rescue workers dug with their hands through 5 feet of coal to reach them, mine officials said.

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