News

[den]

On April 25 a small earthquake in north Tasmania caused a rockfall that killed one miner and trapped two. Five days later a thermal camrea discovered the two miners, trapped in a safety cage under tons of rock. They'd survived on a cerial bar and by licking water from rocks.

This morning the pair were freed, and they walked from the mine to the ambulance, pausing only to change their tags to show they were going off-shift. Nice one, Brant Webb and Todd Russell.

Comments

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

Wow, here I thought the rescuers had managed to at least get some food and water into them.

That's truely amazing and a very VERY happy ending.

[ngarewyrd.livejournal.com]

they had food passed down to them after they were found, but I think they had a period of about 5 days before they were found and a small tunnel bored in to where they were..

[elynne.livejournal.com]

That is amazingly awesome. :D And changing their tags as they left... that's just super-classy. :D

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

As frostbyt3 just said to me... "Boooooo-cooooooo overtime!" *grins*

Tags

[chriswheeler.livejournal.com]

Damn media kept cutting away before the tags when I was watching.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

w00t! The last thing I heard about those two is that rescuers were blocked from them by three feet of very tough rock.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Austrailians, I am learning, are nothing if not resillient. After all, y'all's civilization was started by people who were sent away because they were not wanted, and met people who lived on a continent who didn't want either group on it, and produced animals and environments to prove it.

(On the other hand, said continent seems to be enamoured of European frogs...)

Have the best

-=TK

Hard rock café

[frith]

I heard that they ran out the cage once the rock was cleared. But what was that rock made of anyway? "Crowbar swung with full force didn't scratch the rock blocking the way" was what I heard.

Re: Hard rock café

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

It was some sort of metamorphic rock, like granite only harder.

Re: Hard rock café

[frith]

Poking 'round Google suggests host rock composition of Devonian granite with a high silicon dioxide (quartz) content. Nothing specific about that pesky rock, though. One of the blokes reportedly asked for a newspaper so he could search the Classified section for job offers and the other asked if the ambulance could make a stop at MacDonald's on the way to the hospital. Five days licking wet rocks didn't dampen their spirits too much.

Re: Hard rock café

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

There were a lot of reports like that. When rescuers got the first pipe through to them and said they'd be sending food along it, the pair asked if they could have meat pies.

During the last stage of the rescue the teams had to use low-impact explosives to break the rock. After the first blast there was silence from the trapped miners The guy doing the explosives asked if they were okay, and was told "Of course we're okay! Keep going, ya big girl!"

Re: Hard rock café

[frith]

A jolly pair. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd asked for some Canadian beer to help wash down the meat pies. ;^)

Re: Hard rock café

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

They're Tasmanians. They asked for Cascade and Boags. 8)

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

*salute of respect*

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

That made the papers up here. Tough 'uns.

[jim-lane.livejournal.com]

After so many mining-related tragedies of late, it's GOOD seeing some guys surviving one for a change. Sad that there was still one fatality, but at least it wasn't all three dead---

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

The clocking out part is officially awesome. 'Nuff respect! :>

[annvole.livejournal.com]

That story was on the radio news here do much that I thought it happened in Canada.