page_title: Quecreek Mine rescue
section_title: Rescue
hierarchical_section_title: Quecreek Mine rescue / Rescue operations / Rescue
caption_attribution_description: English: Capped rescue shaft at the Quecreek Mine Rescue site, used to bring all nine trapped miners to the surface successfully in July 2002. The white pipe to the right of the shaft is an air shaft drilled during the immediate response to get air to the miners.
context_page_description: The Quecreek Mine rescue took place in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, when nine miners were trapped underground for over 77 hours, from July 24 to 28, 2002. All nine miners were rescued.
context_section_description: After Rescue Hole No. 1 broke through into the mine, rescuers signaled the trapped miners by tapping on the 6-inch (150 mm) drill steel with a hammer, and a faint response was heard. The miners had been taking turns walking every 10 or 15 minutes 250 feet (76 m) down the passageway from their high ground location to check the area where the drilling sounds were coming from. When Hileman and Foy made the trek on Saturday at about 10:15 p.m. their cap lamps were dim, but that is when they found the drill opening and Hileman alerted the others. 
  Immediately after the rescue hole penetrated the mine, all equipment was shut down in order to take an accurate relative air pressure reading between the mine and surface atmospheres. The pressure reading was zero, indicating that the pressures were equal and that the airlock would not be required. The compressor was turned off and the drill steels were removed from the 6-inch (150 mm) hole.  At 10:53 p.m. a special pen-shaped, two-way communication device was lowered into the 6-inch air pipe, with a child's glow stick attached to it for visibility in the dark mine. Communication was established with the miners who confirmed that all nine were alive and well, except for the foreman who was experiencing chest pains.   
  At 12:30 a.m. on July 28, the 8½-foot high steel mesh escape capsule, with supplies, descended into Rescue Hole No. 1, into the void where the men had languished in fear and hope for 77 hours.  Due to recurring chest pains, foreman Randy Fogle was chosen to be the first rescued miner, and arrived on the surface at approximately 1:00 a.m. The removal order of the rest of the crew was based upon weight, the heaviest to lightest, as the last would have no assistance getting into the capsule. The miners were brought up in 15-minute intervals, and all nine miners were on the surface at 2:45 a.m. 
  None of the miners suffered from the decompression sickness, and they were transferred either by helicopter (flying at low altitudes) or by ambulance to hospitals. However, as the drill shaft had gone through an aquifer, then in their final exits the miners had been drenched in yet another torrent of cold water. Extremities were purple and mottled from immersion, and trauma surgeon Dr. Russell Dumire stated, "They were freezing cold,...It looked like if you rubbed real hard against their feet, you could rub the skin right off." The lowest body temperature among the miners was about 92.5 °F (33.6 °C) degrees, the warmest at 96.8 °F (36.0 °C), versus normal body temperature of 98.6 °F (37.0 °C).
caption: Rescue Hole No. 1, now capped, used to rescue the miners. The white pipe to the right is the air shaft used to get air to the miners.
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