ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 28, 1994                   TAG: 9407280079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KIMBALLTON                                 LENGTH: Medium


AFTER 2 DAYS, MISSING MINER'S BODY STILL CAN'T BE FOUND

Search dogs were taken Wednesday to the site of rockfall in a Giles County limestone mine, where rescuers were still searching for a foreman who is missing and presumed dead.

The search at the Eastern Ridge Lime Co. for Barry B. Snider entered its second full day Wednesday. More than 50 hours after the Monday cave-in, federal and state workers had not found Snider. A second man, Jeffery Morgan , 32, of Princeton, W.Va., was rescued about an hour after the collapse and is in Roanoke Memorial Hospital with a fractured pelvis.

Morgan was operating a jumbo drill and was found in its cab, which had been crushed by rock.

Snider, 37, of Blacksburg, was near Morgan when the collapse occurred, Morgan said Monday evening.

Mark Haynie, quality assurance coordinator, said the search dogs would go into the mine and "hopefully be able to isolate the area" where workers should search for Snider.

State, federal and company officials have reached the general area of the rockfall, but there are rocks in their paths, some so large that they cannot be moved. Haynie and other company officials say while finding Snider is of paramount concern, so is the safety of the investigators and rescuers in the mine.

Investigators have been at the mine since Monday afternoon, but a cause for the collapse has not been released, and Haynie said, "until the recovery is made, that is not the primary reason for being down there."

Investigators returned to the mine Wednesday morning after stopping the search early Tuesday evening until more equipment could be brought in to further stabilize the mine. Haynie said the work was stopped because there appeared to be some rock movement in the mine.

Keywords:
FATALITY



 by CNB