Riggs looked over at DJ, who was doing everything he could to try to revive Billy, short of the suicidal move of attempting mouth to mouth. He looked inside the Humvee to see Hoss trying to revive Tim. As much as he didn’t want to believe it, Riggs was sure that Billy and Tim were already dead—probably had been since right after Hoss had lost communication with them. He was just as sure that if he and Hoss and DJ didn’t get in the Humvee and get the hell out of the tunnel right now, it wouldn’t be long before they were dead, too. If they made it out alive, he figured, a rescue crew could come in and get Billy and Tim’s bodies.
Riggs was a veteran diver, a member of the brotherhood. It went against every fiber in him to leave a brother behind. But in this frenzied trauma, his mind flashed back to the mine rescue training that he and the other divers had sat through six weeks earlier. Back then, the instructor had drilled the divers on the protocol for handling a man down: Don’t try to resuscitate him, especially if he’s been down for a while. Focus on safely evacuating yourself, and leave the rescue effort to others. Otherwise you’re bound to add to the body count.
Mine rescue trainers work hard to try to break down the powerful “band of brothers” instincts that miners and people in similar high-risk professions tend to share. As noble as those instincts seem, they simply cannot hold up to the lessons drawn from more than a century of mine accidents. Government incident reports221 catalogued by the U.S. Mine Rescue Association show with depressing repetition what usually happens in accidents when workers focus on trying to rescue their comrades rather than getting themselves to safety. They die.
Take, for example, the Woodbine coal mine in southeastern Kentucky. In the summer of 1985, a four-man team of young miners spent the afternoon hauling coal, operating three “scoop” vehicles222. Two of the miners223, Robert and Ricky Bauer, were brothers. As the miner in the lead scoop penetrated an abandoned shaft, he was suddenly overcome. The three miners behind him rushed to his aid, working to revive him, only to lose consciousness themselves. Somehow, though, twenty-one-year-old Robert Bauer managed to regain consciousness. He dragged his twenty-two-year-old brother to an area of the mine where the air was better, then rushed back to try to rescue the others.
After a long period of radio silence, a separate rescue team headed into the mine. There they found an unconscious Robert Bauer cradling one of the other miners in his arms. All four miners were rushed to the surface, but only Ricky Bauer survived. An investigation determined224 that after the miners had penetrated the abandoned shaft, that shaft had acted like a vacuum, sucking the good air out of that part of the mine, leaving the men with the oxygen-starved air known in the trade as blackdamp.
Zeroing in on the instincts that take over during a crisis, one mine rescue trainer would frame his scared-straight talk this way: “Are you going to stay there or are you going to get yourself out? If you stay there, you are committing suicide. There is nothing noble about suicide. It’s immoral225.”
Again, Riggs called over to DJ and Hoss. “We’ve got to leave them!” Still, Hoss was the foreman of the crew. Despite his youth and occasional brashness, Riggs respected him, as well as the preternatural air of authority that seemed to match his imposing height. After suspending his work on Tim so he could quickly take everything in, Hoss let out his verdict. “We’re leaving these guys.”
Hoss’s decision was so firm, so calm, so right, that it had a clarifying effect on Riggs. Despite what his brain told him, his heart agreed with Hoss. Instantly, he felt good about it.
Hoss turned to Riggs226. “Get those rebreathers ready.”
“I’m on it,” Riggs replied, hustling to the rear of the Humvee. Although the main and primary backup air supplies were now useless to them, the divers did have several other emergency devices. There were the bailout bottles that they each wore on their hips, which offered ten minutes of air. There were one-hour Ocenco self-rescuers that had been the sandhogs’ emergency supply, which Kiewit had loaned the divers for this job. And finally there were the Drager rebreathers, the ones Hoss was referring to, which were designed for mine rescue operations and now offered the divers their best shot at survival. On paper, these rebreathers promised each diver a total of four hours of air. But Riggs remembered what the instructors had said back during their training, about how people tend to burn through their air supply much faster during crisis situations. So he knew that he and the other guys should probably take each of those totals and divide them in half. That didn’t leave them much wiggle room, since just the drive back to the shaft would normally take about two hours.
When Riggs opened up the Hummer’s back doors to grab the rebreathers, he heard a constant, high-pitched beeping coming from several different and dissonant devices. These devices included the second Drager Multiwarn gas analyzer, which Harald had handed the divers in response to Riggs’s request for an in-line analyzer. To Riggs, the back of the vehicle sounded like a stage full of second-graders playing their recorders in a tedious school concert.
The rebreathers, which resembled roller suitcases and contained filters to absorb the carbon dioxide from exhaled air, were the same devices the other divers had used during the fact-finding mission. Their name said a lot about how they functioned, since they “scrubbed” and recirculated air, allowing it to be breathed more than once. Because the scrubbed air burned hot, each rebreather needed to have an ice pack installed in it. Riggs pulled out the first rebreather and began assembling it. It turned out to be quite a struggle, partly because it was a complicated process but mostly because Riggs still needed to devote one hand to kinking his hose after each breath. Standing there, shoving the hose between his legs and trying to use his knees to do the kinking, Riggs began quietly praying. Lord, have mercy on us. Help deliver us.
As Riggs looked up, he could see Hoss watching him. Riggs knew that Hoss wasn’t religious. But he could see a wistful look on his face. “Pray for us, Riggs,” Hoss called.
Hoss headed back to the boat and grabbed three of the one-hour Ocenco self-rescuers. Each of these devices had its own face piece, which sent the short supply of breathing air directly into the diver’s mouth while pinching off his nose. Switching to this supply required some real choreography, making it essentially a two-person job. With Riggs focused on assembling the rebreathers, Hoss and DJ helped each other get the one-hour devices attached and activated.
Hoss counted off, “one, two, three,” then took a deep breath and held it. In one swift motion, he ripped off his facemask and attached the new contraption to his nose and mouth. There was a lag time before the unit kicked in. Only when he knew it was working did Hoss exhale. Then he helped DJ get his going. Like Riggs, Hoss recalled the trainer’s warning about the devices providing a shorter-than-advertised air supply during periods of high stress. This situation certainly qualified. So Hoss hit his stopwatch. To be on the safe side, he planned to have everyone out of the Ocencos within half an hour.
After gesturing for DJ to go help Riggs get his on, Hoss turned his attention to the logistics of driving out of the tunnel. By the time DJ approached him, Riggs had managed with one hand227 to get the first of the four-hour rebreathers set up, though he hadn’t yet had a chance to retrieve its ice pack from a cooler in the Humvee.
221 (Chapter 11, note 2)
Government incident reports: U.S. Mine Rescue Association, “Miners Killed During Recovery Operations,” Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
222 (Chapter 11, note 3)
operating three “scoop” vehicles: U.S. Mine Rescue Association, “Frank Crawford, Jr., Coal Company No. 1 Mine Explosives Accident,” www.usmra.com/saxsewell/frank_crawford.htm.
223 (Chapter 11, note 4)
Two of the miners: “Around the Nation: 3 Killed and One Hurt in Kentucky Coal Mine,” United Press International, April 16, 1985.