Friday, October 11, 2024 - A rescue operation in Colorado on Thursday to bring trapped mining tour visitors out of an underground mine was successful, seven hours after one person died and four others were injured.
Gov. Jared Polis announced that the twelve
people who were trapped in the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine for 6 hours have been
successfully rescued.
"I am relieved," Polis said in a
prepared statement.
The popular tourist attraction where they
used to mine for gold is located in Cripple Creek. Teller County Sheriff Jason
Mikesell said in an afternoon news conference that the trolley car that goes
down the elevator as part of the tour was 500 feet under the ground when a
mechanical issue happened. That led to the injuries and the death. So far it's
not clear exactly how the victim died.
Mikesell said the fatal victim and the four
people injured were part of a group that was removed from the mine, but another
group of 12 people 1,000 feet down wound up being unable to surface due to the
safety issue.
After many hours, safety officials were able to get the elevator back in working order and the rescue of the 12 people was complete by 7:45 p.m. They were brought up four at a time, and were given pizza to eat after their ordeal.
"We have people and engineers from the
state of Colorado, from our local jurisdictions, mine safety, from our
partnering mine right over here, our fire departments," Mikesell said
while they were still working on the rescue. "We have the best people in
the country that are here working on this issue right now, and my hope is that
we can have it resolved tonight."
The identity of the person who was killed
has not been released.
"Our deepest condolences to the family
and friends of the individual lost in this incident," Polis said.
Colorado state Sen. Mark Baisley, a
Republican who represents Teller County, called the situation a tragic.
"The best outcome right now (is) a lot
of families get together to recover from the fatality and to comfort each
other," Baisley said.
Polis directed state resources to assist
authorities with the rescue efforts.
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