HUNTINGTON — One of four miners who got out of a collapsing coal mine alive said he didn't feel or hear a thing as the mountain shook and caved in, trapping six of his colleagues.

Tim Curtis was near the mine's entrance on Aug. 6 when he got a text message telling him of the collapse on his PED, or personal emergency device. The trapped men are believed to be about 3.4 miles from the mine's entrance.

"Where I was at, I felt nothing," Curtis said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's just like you are here and three miles away are you going to hear a balloon pop?"

The three other men who escaped the mine unharmed were also believed to be relatively close to the entrance.

The cause of the collapse has not been officially established. Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp. and co-owner of the mine, has insisted it was caused by an earthquake but seismologists say there was no earthquake and that readings on seismometers actually came from the collapse.

Murray arrived Monday morning at a junior high school in Huntington for the private daily briefing of the six miners' families. Sunday's briefing lasted hours, and rescue officials later said that was because they stayed to answer all questions posed by family members.

Curtis, a 33-year-old third-generation miner who works as a mine fire boss, or safety inspector, has worked 12-hour shifts every day since the collapse to aid the rescue effort.

As that effort continued Sunday, there was more disheartening news for rescuers and relatives of the missing men. A video camera lowered into the collapsed mine revealed equipment but no sign of the miners, a federal official said.

Searchers decided to drill a third hole in hopes of finding them. Mine officials were unavailable early Monday for comment on whether crews had begun drilling that hole. Officials said Sunday they expected to have the drilling rig in place by early Monday so would work could begin.

Two holes have already been drilled about 1,800 feet down into the mountain containing the mine. The first is a 2 1/2-inch wide hole that rescue crews initially believed drifted during the drilling process into a neighboring sealed chamber because air samples showed little more than 7 percent oxygen, which cannot support life. The hole was later determined to be in an active work area. A two-way microphone dropped down heard nothing and there was no response to rescuers' calls of "Hello in the mine!" Rescuers were pumping air down the hole.