Nine for Nine

On 24th July 2002, two shifts of miners - 18 men in all - entered the Black Wolf Coal Company's Quecreek No 1 Mine, a few miles north-west of the town of Somerset, Pennsylvania. Some seven hours later, nine men were trapped by rapidly rising water in a cavern more than 200 feet below ground, and the nine others, drenched and exhausted, had managed to struggle out to safety. This is the story of a disaster that so nearly claimed those nine lives, and of the heroic efforts of the rescuers who, three days later, finally managed to bring the trapped miners safely back to the surface. It is, too, the account of an unfolding drama, as first Pennsylvania, then all America and finally the world watched and hoped as the rescue was played out in the full glare of the media.