Visitor reveals horror of tourists trapped inside Colorado gold mine when it malfunctioned, killing guide
Just days before a popular Colorado tourist attraction was set to close for the season, an unimaginable elevator failure left one dead and several others horrified.
In the aftermath of the scar incident, which took place at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, near Cripple Creek, one of the visitors trapped underground said the group “never panicked” as the first engineers rushed to rescue them.
‘It was awkward, but we were never panicked or scared, at least no one ever visibly said, “Are we ever going to get out of here?” or ‘can we get something out of it?'” Rhonda told Pulse KTV.
Pulse was part of a second group of twelve people who were trapped nearly 1,000 feet underground for six hours due to an earlier elevator failure.
Emergency workers try to free trapped tourists at the site of a mining accident in Cipple Creek on Thursday
First responders are working here after the incident Thursday afternoon
‘We have been inconvenienced. We felt uncomfortable, but we weren’t. Fortunately we were not aware of it. We were getting hungry. We got a little cold,” she said.
She added that the group was “so grateful” for the response of first responders.
The dozens of visitors were eventually hoisted up in groups of four in a period of 30 minutes.
Pulse’s group was the victim of an earlier outage that killed one man and left four others with minor injuries when the 11-lift elevator experienced a mechanical problem about 500 feet down.
According to Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, the elevator still worked and the occupants were brought back to the surface within about 20 minutes.
The identity of the lone deceased has now been revealed as 46-year-old tour guide and father of one, Patrick Weier. Gold mine guide said to have been at work during ‘very tragic accident’
On Thursday evening, officials managed to repair the elevator system and bring those left in the mine to the surface
A door on the elevator broke as it was being raised, and the cause of the malfunction remains unknown, Mikesell added.
The identity of the lone deceased has now been revealed as 46-year-old tour guide and father of one, Patrick Weier.
The gold mine guide was said to have been at work during the ‘very tragic accident’ on Thursday.
The exact cause of Weier’s death was not immediately revealed, but authorities said they believed it was related to the elevator malfunction, as opposed to a suspected medical episode.
The father, who left behind a 7-year-old son, was said to be on board the elevator when it experienced the mechanical problem.
The elevator accident remains under investigation by local and state authorities, as well as the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The mine will be closed until further notice.