Inquiry opens into US mine ordeal

The rescue effort was a great success

The Governor of Pennsylvania, Mark Schweiker, has said that an investigation is beginning into how nine miners became trapped in a flooded coal mine.

Mr Schweiker said on Monday that the inquiry would be carried out by the state's Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the mining industry.

An investigation will kick off today and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it

Mark Schweiker

He said investigators would begin by looking at maps of the area and whether they contained evidence of an abandoned shaft, which was worked out in the 1950s, where the floodwater came from.

The nine men were brought to the surface one by one from a rescue shaft on Sunday morning after being trapped for three days.

The drama began last Wednesday when the miners inadvertently broke through into an abandoned, water-filled shaft at Somerset County's Que Creek mine, about 60 miles (96 km) south-east of Pittsburgh.

An estimated 50 million to 60 million gallons (190-230 million litres) poured into the area where the men were working, cutting them off.

"We tried to outrun it, but it was too fast," said miner Blaine Mayhugh.

However, they managed to warn a second crew, which escaped.

Vital sandwich

More accounts have been emerging of the men's ordeal as they waited in the cold and dark to be rescued.

Click here to see where the miners were trapped

Thomas Foy told how he found a colleague's lunch inside a dry bucket - a corned beef sandwich, some Mountain Dew soda and some Pepsi.

"One guy took a bite and passed it around," he said. "I figured we were good for another couple of days."

Mr Mayhugh told how the men tied themselves together so they would "live or die as a group".

As the water in the chamber continued to rise, he asked his boss for a pen.

"I said, 'I want to write my wife and kids to tell them I love them'," he said, choking back tears.

The men were brought up in a narrow cylinder

Rescue workers, who had drilled for three days to get to the men, finally reached the chamber where the miners were trapped late on Saturday evening.

They lowered a capsule down a 26-inch (66 cm) wide shaft to bring them out, to scenes of jubilation on the surface.

All nine were taken to hospital and three were still in the hospital on Monday morning. Medical staff said their condition was remarkably good considering their ordeal.

Dr Russell Dumire, a trauma surgeon at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, said two would be going home by the end of the day.

The one miner who would be staying in hospital was having severe heartburn that has made him unable to eat, Dr Dumire said.

Some miners said on Monday they might not be going back to their old jobs.

"You don't think about the hazards of the job as much when you're doing it," said miner Randy Fogle.

"I don't know if too many of us will go back to what we did. It put our families through a lot. It was hard on us and it was I think harder on them."

Mr Foy told family members "he will never go underground again," said his daughter Tonya Butler, 26.

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