Rescue renews warnings about old mines

The Nevada Bureau of Mines will inspect an abandoned mine today in the foothills of southwest Las Vegas after Wednesday's rescue of two men trapped in the mine.

The mine, about 1.5 miles west of the intersection of Durango Drive and Warm Springs Road, will be investigated by Pat Durbin, chief of the state's abandoned-mine program.

A number of mines in the Blue Diamond area have been mapped, and Durbin said he will investigate to see whether this mine has already been mapped. He will also determine whether the mine had been ordered secured and whether the two men tore down a fence to get in.

On Sunday evening two men who had been drinking went inside the mine presumably to explore, Doug Luzaich said. He is a member of the Clark County Fire Department's Technical Rescue Team that rescued the two men Wednesday afternoon.

"They just ran through the mine, and they had no lighting or water," Luzaich said. "They were real happy to see us."

About 175 feet into the mine, the two men fell down a 50-foot drop. Rescuers used ropes and a pulley system as well as a Stokes -- a basket used to haul injured people up steep surfaces -- to retrieve the men.

The rescue team arrived on the scene at 1 p.m. By 4:30 p.m., both men, identified by only their first names of Vern and Richard, had been brought out of the mine.

Both were caked with dust and were dehydrated to such an extent that IV's were required to rehydrate them.

Vern, who suffered a broken ankle and broken ribs from the fall, said he thought he would never get out of the mine.

"Now I know what they mean when they say stay away from mines on the TV," he said as he was loaded into an ambulance.

Both Vern and Richard, who suffered a head injury in the fall, were transported to University Medical Center for treatment.

They were found by 71-year-old Fred "Bill" Pennington in what fire officials called a stroke of luck.

"I just started prospecting out here Monday, and every morning I'd see a truck parked out here, so today I decided to see if there was anyone up by this mine," Pennington said. "I noticed a dollar bill with a rock on it and a pack of cigarettes near the entrance, so I called down and they answered that they needed help."

Pennington went back down the foothills to the Vistina real estate office at the corner of Durango and Warm Springs where he called the fire department.

Durbin said 1,428 mine openings have been identified in Clark County as potentially dangerous. Of that total, 695 have been secured -- either by putting a fence around the property, boarding up the opening or filling the shaft with dirt. He said thousands of mines exist statewide that his division does not know about. Durbin said he would not know whether this was one of them until his investigation today.

"There are an estimated 50,000 mine openings statewide that could pose a hazard to people or animals," Durbin said. "To date we have investigated 7,304 mines, and 4,995 of those are secured."

If the mine is on public lands and there are no mining patents, it's the state's responsibility to take safety measures, such as putting a fence around the opening and signs warning of the danger.

After a open mine is located, its hazard is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10. If a shaft is within 100 feet of a building or a highly traveled road and has a 200-foot vertical drop, it would get a 10 rating. Those mines with short horizonal shafts and locations far from roads or buildings would be ranked low on the hazard scale.

The state's abandoned-mines program was created in 1987 with the goal of locating all such mines across the state and putting up safety barriers.

In the case of minor hazards, posting a warning sign is sufficient, he said.

Durbin estimated that his staff of three is able to find, log and rate 300 to 400 mines a year.

Most abandoned mining holes in Clark County predate World War II, said Joel Mur, natural-resources specialist for the Bureau of Land Management.

"People often lack common sense," Mur said. "The bottom line is if there is some kind of mine opening, my recommendation is to stay out. You can never depend on it being safe. You don't know if the rock is stable or not."

Wednesday's mine rescue is the third one this year, Durban said.

Earlier this year, six men in their 20s got lost in a mine south of Tonopah during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. One fell 65 feet, requiring 10 stitches in his scalp. A second man wandered down a side tunnel and his light went out. He fell asleep and it took rescuers from Winnemucca and Beatty seven hours to find him.

Last month in Douglas County south of Carson City, a man walking his two dogs watched as a 100-pound malamute gave chase to a jackrabbit. The dog fell down a 20-foot hole, and it took rescuers three hours to retrieve him.

Sun reporters Mary Manning and Scott Reeder contributed to this report.

archive