Slow Motion Collapse

Eleven days ago 6 miners were trapped in a Utah coal mine when a "mountain bump" caused a cave in. Since then rescue workers have been attempting to reach the area of the mine where the six miners were thought to be working. They've been drilling holes from above with the hopes of lowering cameras, microphones, food and water, and pumping in air. Three attempts have yielded nothing.

At the same time more rescuers have been digging through the collapsed tunnels to reach the cavern where the 6 were thought to be. They've suffered numerous set backs. According to today's Tribune story there have been 3 more mini collapses starting on the first day of rescue work. Yesterday another collapse killed 3 rescue workers and injurred 6 more.

I've not commented on this tragedy because it didn't really seem my place. Not that I have many readers (maybe just 1) but I didn't want to even risk the small chance of saying something that could dash the hopes of the trapped miners' loved ones. But now I feel compelled to do so.

Applying just minimal logic tells you that the 6 trapped miners are dead. Even if they weren't burried under tons of rock

1. Air samples taken from the overhead holes show that there is not enough oxygen to support human life.
2. After 11 days they had to be near starvation.
3. After so many days they would be dead from lack of water
4. As more collapses continued the chances of them being burried increased

But instead of admitting to ourselves what is more or less self evident officials have rushed in to an unstable mine. The rescuers were doing heroic work and should be viewed as such. But they were needlessly endangering their lives looking for dead bodies.