Rescuers Temporarily Suspend Rescue Effort

[almostfamous]

Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:51 pm

Due to dangerous gases rescue teams were forced Thursday to temporarily suspend their rescue effort at a West Virginia coal mine. The massive explosion killed 25 miners and 4 are still missing. The rescuers would not re-enter the Upper Big Ranch mine where the four workers have been missing since Monday due to worrying levels of gases, including methane, as the reason. Families of the missing workers are still holding out hope that their loved ones may have survived the blast and been able to make their way to one of the mine's underground refuge chambers that are stocked with food, water and air. Officials said the odds were slim. The teams of rescuers had begun the 5 mile underground trip into the mine before dawn but the gases forced them to turn back. The cause of the explosion is not yet known. The Upper Branch mine blast is the deadliest disaster since the 27 miners who died in a fire in Utah. In the worst US coal mine disaster 362 miners died at the Monongah mine in 1906 which was also in West Virginia.