Coal Mine Rescue- Quecreek Coal Mine Rescue

Coal Mine Rescue
Quecreek Mine
Windber, Pennsylvania


The Accident

(July 24, 2002) Nine Pennsylvania Quecreek miners were trapped in an underground chamber when they accidentally broke through into an adjacent unused mining shaft. The miners were excavating bituminous coal in the mine. At the time of the accident they were a 1 1/2 miles from the surface entrance to the mine.

The mining shaft that they broke into had been abandoned since the1950's and had been since flooded with water. When the walls of the shaft were breeched 60 million gallons of water rushed into the mine shaft, forcing the miners to seek shelter in the underground chamber.


The Rescue

For the next two and a half days, there were no signs of life from below of any kind. As each attempt to reach the miners stalled, fears surrounding the miners general safety continued to rise.

Late Saturday night at around 10pm the mine rescue crews reached the flooded shaft. They dropped a telephone line into the chamber and soon discovered that all nine miners were alive and in reasonably good health. The emergency mine rescue crews quickly created an air line to send compressed air down into the chamber and then began pumping out the water through several surface pump rigs.

When the rescuers finally reached the chamber, they used a yellow rescue cage to send down food, water, blankets and lights. The rescue cage is 22 inches wide and 100 inches long.

The last miner to emerge from the underground chamber was Mark Popernack. He arrived at the surface at 2:45 a.m. with a big smile and a thumbs up. After being trapped for more than 72 hours, everyone was  ready to celebrate. The miners all appeared to be in relatively good health, despite suffering from hypothermia.

The Cage

The final dramatic rescue of all nine miners relied on the 22"x100" yellow cage. This narrow cage was used to lift each miner, one by one, up the rescue shaft. This same rescue cage has now become a symbol of what has become perhaps the most dramatic mine rescue of American history.

The controversy of who will get to retain and preserve this symbol now lies between one of the greatest American museums, the Smithsonian Institute, and the local town museum, the Windber Coal Heritage Center. The Windber Coal Heritage Center was created to preserve the history of the depressed former min company town. The Smithsonian seeks to add the capsule to its American History Collection.