Tank's Poetry
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united states mine rescue association
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Tank's Poetry |
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Almost miraculously, Burchett suffered only a broken leg and other apparently superficial injuries when a section of roof measuring about 100 by 20 feet and averaging four feet thick came crashing down without warning. Rescue workers using hydraulic jacks slowly and methodically lifted the fallen slate to a point where Burchett, 39-year-old father of four children, could be extricated. He had been in contact with the rescuers for hours before he was freed at 12:15 this morning and rushed to a hospital. About 10 p.m. one of the workers crawled some 30 feet under the debris and reported the trapped man was in good spirits after drinking some coffee the man brought him. The five men killed when the roof gave way in the Lundale mine of Amherst Coal Co. were identified as Elmer Broady, a machine helper; Earl Johnson and James E. Rogers, roof bolt machine operators; William Collins, a machine man; and Jack Pennington, the foreman. A seventh man, Estes Woods, a joy operator, who was working with them jumped clear of the falling roof and escaped injury. He crawled away from the scene and walked out of the mine. The fall occurred with such suddenness that a group of men working 175 feet away had to be told of the cave in. Rescue workers estimated the weight of the single piece of rock at about 500 tons. Federal and State mine inspectors began a probe into the disaster early this morning. The mine was shut down shortly after the accident occurred at 6:30 p.m. at an intersection of two passageways about 2 miles from the main mouth of the mine, which was opened only last year. The mine employees 215 men, about half of whom were at work on the second shift when the accident occurred. |
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