Lucky Friday rescue
Rescue crews continue to dig toward trapped miner, Larry Marek, at the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan, Idaho. Marek was trapped more than a mile underground after the roof of a tunnel where the Idaho miner was extracting silver-bearing ore collapsed.
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“We’re doing everything we can to reach the employee,” said Phillips Baker, Hecla’s chief executive officer. “We’re going to bring him out. That’s what we’re working on.”
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Hecla Mining Company community affairs representative Mike Dexter, left, and CEO Phillips Baker address a crowd of about 35 people at Mullan City Hall in Mullan, Idaho to give updates on the trapped miner on Saturday, April 16, 2011.
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Hecla Mining Company community affairs representative Mike Dexter listens as CEO Phillips Baker talks to the crowd of about 35 people at Mullan City Hall in Mullan, Idaho to give updates on the trapped miner on Saturday, April 16, 2011.
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Lucky Friday miner, Brad Sala, of Mullan, Idaho, holds his 8 month-old-son Cael Sala during a news conference at Mullan City Hall on Saturday, April 16, 2011, in Mullan, Idaho.
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Rescuers had cleared debris from the first 25 feet by Saturday afternoon, but progress slowed for safety reasons. Crews had to secure the overhead rock before they could continue forward.
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Hecla Mining Company community affairs representative Mike Dexter, left, and CEO Phillips Baker address a crowd Saturday, April 16, 2011, in Mullan, Idaho.
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Solemn miners and community members huddled in groups in downtown Mullan to share information about the accident and rescue efforts. Others formed prayer circles.
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Mullan resident, Nancy Johansen, listens to the press conference at Mullan City Hall in Mullan, Idaho on Saturday, April 16, 2011, after an accident at The Lucky Friday Mine on Friday.
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Longtime Silver Valley miners said if Larry “Pete” Marek survived the Friday night rockfall that trapped him 6,150 feet underground, his hydraulic drill could supply him with the air and water he needs to keep him alive.
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Larry “Pete” Marek, 53, was trapped more than a mile underground when the ceiling of his work area, or stope, collapsed Friday evening.
Courtesy of KHQ
Don Capparelli speaks about Larry “Pete” Marek at his home in Page, Idaho on Monday, April 18, 2011. Capparelli, now retired, was Marek’s supervisor while the two worked at the Sunshine Mine in the late 1990s. The effort to reach Marek, a 30-year mining veteran, had stretched into a third day after he was trapped in the collapse about 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Lucky Friday mine while his brother, another mine worker, escaped.
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Throughout the Silver Valley, miners and residents monitoring the situation are hoping and praying that Marek found refuge in a pocket beyond the rockfall and was not buried. There has been no communication with the miner since the collapse Friday evening.
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People mill around downtown Mullan, Idaho on Monday, April 18, 2011. Residents are hoping for the best for trapped miner Larry “Pete” Marek as crews work 24 hours a day to free him from a cave in at the Lucky Friday mine.
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Hecla Mining officials anticipate completing a 185-foot bore hole Tuesday that could help them re-establish contact with a trapped miner at the Lucky Friday Mine. It’s unknown whether the miner, Larry “Pete” Marek, survived the rockfall, but if he did, he could be trapped behind the massive rock pile. There has been no communication with Marek since the incident on Friday evening.
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A Lucky Friday miner is positioned at the front entrance of the mine in Mullan, Idaho on Monday, April 18, 2011. He was keeping out the general public while crews worked to free trapped miner Larry “Pete Marek.
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