Crandall Canyon Coal Mine Collapse - Day 1, Tour
August 15, 2007
I arrived at the command post just in time to hear mine owner Robert Murray announce that he would be taking members of the media on a tour of the Crandall Canyon coal mine, where six miners were trapped. The composite photo above, taken just below the mine entrance, is made up of twenty-four photographs. I’ve been playing around with PhotoShop CS3’s PhotoMerge feature to build my panoramics; that’s why it’s all freaky looking.
We crowded into a windowless truck and were driven up the hill to the mine. Spontaneously, at least half the journalists began making the same jokes: either, “Where does the poison gas come out?” or, “Now that they have us all in one place, they’ll push this truck off a cliff.”
Under the circumstances, being taken on the tour of the mine was unprecedented. We are usually kept well away from an emergency situation like this. You can see that, compared to the miners, we weren’t necessarily dressed for the occasion, at least safety-wise.
The next day Murray took an Associated Press photographer right into the mine itself to photograph the rescue operation. Something like that has never happened before, at least not in the modern media environment. Those photographs were distributed to all outlets in a pool arrangement.
Related Posts
- 2007 Portfolio: Murray Breakdown
- From 2007: Crandall Canyon Coal Mine Composites
- Crandall Canyon Coal Mine Collapse
- Crandall Canyon Coal Mine Tragedy - Mr. Murray
- Crandall Canyon Coal Mine Tragedy - Playing to the Camera
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