Barry's Mine Story

Morning dawned to another beautiful day in Copiapó. As I woke to the sound of the cock crowing I stretched and nudged Anna beside me and only got a groaned “leave me alone” response. Ah well, everything is normal in the Gonzales household.

Nature’s call got me out of bed and into the bathroom to start the day. The usual quick clean-up and change into my work gear, then into the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal and coffee.

5am….. I could hear the neighbourhood starting to stir with dogs barking and José next door yelling at them to “shut up”. The lazy bum doesn’t like being woken but like me we both have to get to work at the mine by 6am so I figured he’d better get moving.

I went into my young son Pepi’s bedroom and took a moment to look at his peaceful face as he slept, then bent down and kissed him on the forehead before going back into our bedroom, sat on the edge of the bed beside Anna and kissed her also. This time she responded and put her arms around me and kissed me back. Dam this business of having to go to work but we’ve got to eat and enjoying myself now wasn’t going to help me keep my job. I told her I loved her and gave her a final hug before slipping away.

Grabbing my lunch tin as I went I let myself out the front door and joined José on the road outside his place and I ribbed him about ‘noisy neighbours’ yelling in the morning to which he gave me a good natured shove and told me what I could do with myself.

We started to gather into a straggling mob as our companions joined us on the trek up the hill to the mine and the start of another shift 700 metres below ground.

Father Antonio was at the mine shack as usual to give us the blessing before we went below.

Pelé our shift foreman started yelling out instructions of what he wanted us to do today and the usual ‘pep’ talk to encourage us to work harder and earn the boss more money…..lousy bastard doesn’t share too much of it with us lowly workers. Oh well, it wasn’t too bad. It was hard work but at least we had a job. There were many others in town who were reduced to begging just to stay alive and I didn’t want to join them.

Twenty of us packed into the cage to take us down to the bottom of the shaft. I don’t know what it was but I had a cold shivery feeling pass over me on our way down that left me feeling apprehensive and wondering why I felt like that. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary so I shrugged it off and told myself to stop being silly.

Almost black and white in the flickering light of our head lamps and the occasional electric light mounted on a wooden support I could see the pit ponies harnessed up by the hostler to the skip carts ready to haul the loads back to the shaft for lifting out to the tips above.

I was on shovels today with half the crew while the rest were manning picks. Pelé had us hard at it and a couple of the pit ponies had just returned to the face when from down the tunnel we first heard then felt the earth give a mournful groan and shudder. It was terrifying, the sudden whoosh of air, filled with dust, the sound briefly getting louder, and the panicked noise of the men around me all crying out. The electric lights went out and the only light came from our head lamps. Florencio, our second in charge ventured down the tunnel and was only away briefly before returning with the fateful news we dreaded to hear that the tunnel had collapsed. We were cut off from the shaft and trapped. We had no way of knowing how big the fall had been. Some of the men were crying and praying to God to get us out of here.

Pelé shouted to call for calm. He and Florencio did a head count and came up with 33 men trapped along with the two pit ponies at the mine face. There were no injuries among us luckily and no one was missing which meant that no one had been killed in the fall unless there were others in another section of the mine affected. We were ok….. for the moment.

We held a quick discussion, and concluded that by now management would know of the collapse and a rescue effort would be under way….we just had no way of knowing how bad the situation was or how long it would take them to find us, or whether they would think we were all dead. They must believe we were alive and try and rescue us…wouldn’t they?

Doubt, fear, not knowing, were all playing on our minds.

Pelé was a true leader, despite the arguments men were firing at him he held his calm and gradually brought calm back to the men. An inventory of our food and water was taken. We still had good air which was a blessing….it seemed to be coming in from a small vent shaft to the level above us but didn’t offer an avenue for escape. Water also wasn’t a problem because there was a seep not far from the face which we fervently hoped wouldn’t turn into a flood after the earth movement that caused the collapse. We still had our lunches and a few had some snacks. We wouldn’t immediately starve or die of thirst. Light was a problem and to conserve our batteries all but one head lamp was turned out.

There was about twenty metres from the face to the fall.

A small working party of four was set to the fall to start carefully moving some of the rock, praying that we didn’t cause another fall from the weakened ceiling which now had no support at all. We would take it in turns.

The first party had only been working for about half an hour when another collapse fell on them. The rest of us quickly went to their aid and dug them out. There were a few broken limbs and ribs and José who’d been in the party had a concussion along with cuts and bruises. They were lucky not to be killed.

Digging ourselves out seemed not to be an option. We were doomed unless rescue came from outside!

Quiet settled over the men as each sat and contemplated their fate. Sobbing could be heard and soft prayers being uttered.

I could feel the earth pressing in on me, crushing the breath out of me. With the head lamps out to save batteries there was total darkness. I mean absolute black….nothing! Despair started to set in that I would never see my Anna and Pepi again and that they have lost a husband and father. What would they do? How will they survive?

Arguments started to break out and I heard fighting away in one corner. Pelé and Florencio quickly went to sort that out and settle the men down. There was no point in us killing ourselves they said when rescue could come at any time. We just had to wait and not panic. Rest as best we could and sleep. Conserve our energies.

We played word games and guessing games amongst other things to pass the time and keep our spirits up.

Days passed without any sign from outside, depression was starting to creep in again among many of the men, and I wasn’t exempt.

More time passed, who knew how long, we had lost all concept of time. Food was running out and fear was replacing calm.

The pit ponies were in a bad way as there had been little food for them. A decision was made to kill the weaker one first and as difficult as it may be we could eat the raw meat to help us survive. The air was becoming very stuffy and foul smelling from our sweat and waste. We were still getting air through the small vent but our confined area and all the bodies human and animal were making it difficult.

More time passed….. maybe another day or two, when our first glimmer of hope came when we saw light shining down the air vent. There was a clamber from the men as everyone tried to get to the vent first and call out to anyone that could hear. Pelé ordered silence and slowly order was restored. He set up a couple of shovels and tapping one against the other near the vent we hoped to tell our saviours that we were alive.

Praise the Lord! And Thank Mother Mary! There was a response! Cheers from everyone and our hopes soared….they had found us!

Maybe an hour later, light started to get brighter from the vent as there soon appeared an electric cable with a glowing light globe attached, lowered into our chamber. This was soon followed by a tin can on a thin rope. Inside was a note-pad with a message asking for details of our condition and how many of us survived.

Pelé took up the pencil that was also in the tin can and quickly scribbled out a reply telling them our number and our physical conditions. He told them we needed food and clean water and how the air was becoming foul. And he asked them how long they would likely take to get us out.

Our excitement was electric. They had found us!!

The air vent hole was about 30 centimetres diameter big enough to send through an air hose that they could pump air directly to us and the foul air would be expelled back up through the vent. There was still room to allow sending down bottles of water and small food packages and vitamins and medication to help the sick. (one of our number had a heart condition and needed medication for that that he’d run out of days before, and another couple had developed infections from their cuts from the earlier attempted excavation and also needed pain relief for their broken limbs and ribs).

All this didn’t go smoothly as the articles coming down were often fouled on the air hose which tended to twist about in the hole. But with weights and perseverance supplies started getting through.

Disappointment and depression hit us when we were told they were on the surface and although they had located us through the air vent they would have to drill all the way from the surface to reach us as the cave-in was more extensive than we thought and it was unsafe to try and excavate the tunnel. They didn’t know how long it would take, it was as simple as that! Their prayers were with us and joy was spread to our families and the nation and we discovered we were the focus of international attention with help coming from all over the world. Specialists from Australia and America were coming to help with the rescue.

We just had to hang in there and wait. But now, at least, there was hope!

Our rescuers told us we had been trapped for two weeks now and they had just about given up hope of finding us alive. Thanks to God they didn’t give up!

Soon they started sending us messages of activities to do to strengthen our minds and exercise our bodies, messages to and from our families started getting through and our spirits started to rise again.

They even sent down a small video camera on a cable which they asked us to mount in a secure place and they could monitor how we were getting on. This also had a two-way audio attached which made our communications easier.

Time was still heavy on our hands, even with the new regime of activities and sleep schedules.

Disappointment after disappointment as we were told of failures in their attempts to drill through to us. They said they had to take it slow and careful so as not to cause another cave-in. And earlier failed attempts were due to inappropriate equipment.

The Australians arrived with special equipment similar to that used in a successful rescue in Tasmania a year or so ago and work was progressing satisfactorily, though still slowly.

We had now been trapped for 50 days. 50 days! No one had survived that long trapped underground like that before. The President of Chile was promising that we would be rescued before Christmas.

That was wonderful…….but still a long way off when we thought about it, and depression set in again!

When they realised this they redoubled their efforts in keeping us occupied and exercising and keeping our minds active in positive directions.

They also stepped up their drilling efforts, not throwing caution to the wind, but still going faster than before.

I got to talk to Anna and Pepi on the radio link. That was wonderful; they sounded happy that I was ok and would soon be returned to them. Each of us in turn got the chance to talk to our families and learned that they were camped in an area near the mine entrance and were being looked after by the government. I felt very relieved and happy to hear this as I had been worried about how they were getting on and how they were being cared for.

A message just came through that the drilling was close to us. Another day and we could hear it ourselves and excitement mounted. And then the breakthrough! Wonderful!

Barry Keen 8/11/2010