Utah mining disaster dredges up memories of Wilberg fire

EAST CARBON CITY, Carbon County — Leroy "Tom" M. Hersh should be retired with his wife, Ruth, living the good life — spending half the year at their second home in Sun City, Ariz., and the other half at their home in East Carbon, Utah.

But the couple's plans never materialized. Tom Hersh was one of 27 miners who went missing during the Wilberg Mine fire of 1984. Their bodies were not recovered for nearly a year.

"This time right now, with all of this, it's so hard," Ruth Hersh said. "It's very difficult."

Ruth Hersh was referring to the present day Crandall Canyon Mine accident in Huntington Canyon, where six men have been trapped underground and have not been seen or heard from since Aug. 6.

Ruth Hersh said the similarities between the two accidents — the hope that the trapped miners are alive, the waiting and the media coverage — dredge up the past.

"It's like you kind of have nightmares again," she said.

Tom Hersh, 59, worked as a service foreman in the Wilberg Mine, outside Orangeville, Emery County.

It was snowing on the night of Dec. 19, 1984, Ruth Hersh remembers. The fire sparked about 10 p.m. Ruth Hersh received a call at midnight.

"They said, 'Tom is behind (the fire),"' Ruth Hersh said. "I told them, 'You know Tom's very experienced. He's had a lot of training. He's helped in a lot of mine rescues."'

Ruth Hersh at first was one of the more optimistic family members of the missing 27 miners.

But as time wore on, she quit her teaching job in East Carbon to focus on their two children.

Federal investigators never conclusively determined the fire's cause. It was either a overheated conveyor belt or air compressor, said Sue Ann Martell, director of the Western Mining and Railroad Museum in Helper.

Mine bosses were trying to beat a production record, operating the mine several 24-hour days nonstop.

"They were working continuously," Martell said.

The overheated machine ignited the highly flammable coal.

"Coal dust itself is extremely explosive," Martell said.

Coal fires can burn below the earth for years: "They don't go out until they run out of fuel," she said.