Hope wilts: Miners' families bitter at speculation 5th borehole won't detect signs of life

HUNTINGTON — Speculation that no signs of human life will be found when a fifth borehole is completed over the next two days drew bitter response from family members of six miners trapped for more than two weeks in the Crandall Canyon Mine.

"It is likely that these miners may not be found," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., which owns the Crandall Canyon Mine, during a Sunday press conference to discuss the beginning of work on the new borehole and what officials expect to find when it is completed.

With no sign of life and unlivable oxygen levels found in the fourth hole, Mine Safety and Health Administration officials expect similar disappointing results in the 2,039-foot hole being drilled over the next two days.

"The video did not show any sign of the miners or any kind of mining activity," said assistant U.S. Labor Secretary Richard Stickler, who oversees the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Family members of the six men trapped deep inside the mine for the past two weeks responded to the pessimistic outlook by blasting officials and mine owner Bob Murray.

"We feel that they've given up and that they are just waiting for the six miners to expire," said Sonny Olsen, a spokesman for the families, reading from a prepared statement as about 70 relatives of the trapped miners stood behind him.

According to Utah State Bar records, Olsen is a licensed attorney with the law firm Huegly & Huegly in Price.

Videotape recorded by lowering a camera into the fourth hole showed only rubble and timbers thought to be from both the collapse and the results of the drilling, officials said. Stickler said the first borehole is continuously being monitored, while holes two and three are being pumped with 5,000 cubic feet of oxygen per minute.

Oxygen levels taken in the fourth hole were 11 percent to 12 percent, officials said Sunday.

Despite such continuing efforts, the mood at the Huntington Canyon command post was dampened by the dire situation of the six trapped miners.

"We are attempting to locate the miners," Moore said, refusing to call the efforts anything other than a rescue attempt.

Efforts will remain above ground indefinitely, Stickler and Moore said. It is still too dangerous to send rescuers back underground.

"We are not going to take any unacceptable risks," Moore said. "We cannot expose additional life."