[Mr. Silverback]

The first rescuers did not go into the mine until 11 hours after the blast, a lag coal company officials said was necessary to clear the mine of high concentrations of poisonous gases.

What about respirators? I thought the reason these guys died was because the rescuers couldn't dig to them in time. I was cut off from the news during this crisis and I had no idea the rescuers were waiting on the surface.

[Ohioan from Florida]

The whole rescue was very confusing. The media didn't make it any better to watch, because they would keep asking stupid questions, not good ones. They were always trying to point blame on the mining company from the first minute, and they seemed to want to focus on blame rather than on how to get to the miners. Have you read any of the original threads? It was awful.

[Ohioan from Florida]

Here's a link to the long thread. It had tons of info as the tragedy unfolded.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550633/posts