Residents unite to protect, comfort families

HUNTINGTON, Emery County — They are men with families, hobbies and hometowns, but to the world outside of Huntington, the six men trapped in Crandall Canyon Mine are nameless and faceless, anonymous prisoners to the rock and coal surrounding them.

It's been nearly two days since the men were sealed off in a tunnel deep in the mine, but officials are still declining to issue any information on the miners' identities. Few people know who those men are, but as whispers of information wind through the tight-knit community of Huntington, even fewer people are willing to say what they've heard.

"That's part of the community bonding together to protect them," said Glenda Hansen, who owns one of the town's hair salons. "Yesterday everybody was talking about it, but now it's a protection issue, and it's our responsibility to protect our people and their families. ... They're grieving, they're scared, they're frightened, and people deal with the circumstances differently, and we don't want to get caught off guard."

Family members gathered at Canyon View Junior High School Tuesday, barricaded by a chain-link fence and police officials who prevented non-family members from approaching the facility.

Hansen said she voluntarily delivered food to the family members Monday, but Tuesday she was told that the town's residents would no longer be allowed inside the building for fear that residents would leave the school and talk to members of the media. Instead, the Red Cross is distributing any emergency essentials, Hansen said.

"We know everyone in there (trapped in the mine) one way or another, so it hits us really hard because we're all associated one way or another," Hansen said, hesitant to divulge too much information.

All over town Tuesday, strangers, suspected to be members of the media, were eyed suspiciously when they approached residents. Still, glimpses of the trapped men emerged from the community as residents expressed an overwhelming support for the men and their families.

One woman, who wished to remain unnamed, told of Cary "Flash" Allred, who is reportedly trapped in the mine. Allred is a family man, she said. Another man, who stopped momentarily at the town's gas station, said he heard from an old co-worker that a man with the last name Gonzales is with Allred. Another man said he heard one of the six miners is from Price; another is from nearby Cleveland.

The rumors have spread from household to household with names of who might be trapped. Retired mine workers have called current employees, sons have told fathers, wives have called other wives.