Miner rescued from Quecreek dies at 68

Randy Fogle was the only worker among the group who returned to underground coal mining after the accident.

By RENATTA SIGNORINI
TribLive

Randy Fogle lived by a simple philosophy after surviving the 2002 Quecreek Mine disaster.

“Each day’s a good day you’re alive,” he told TribLive in 2012.

Fogle, the crew foreman and the first of the nine trapped miners hauled to the surface, died Wednesday at Windber Hospice. He was 68.

The industrial accident took place in a rural patch of Somerset County, but the high-stakes rescue operation quickly transfixed the nation and the world as news crews tracked the fate of the workers.

The Garrett resident was the only worker among the group who returned to underground coal mining after the accident, said John Unger, who also was trapped in Quecreek.

“He was one of the best guys you ever wanted to be around,” Unger said Friday. “He was a good guy to work for.”

Fogle, Unger and seven other miners became trapped 240 feet underground in the Quecreek Mine on July 24, 2002. They accidentally drilled into an abandoned, water-filled coal seam, which unleashed millions of gallons of icy water into the shafts. Over the ensuing days, local, state and federal officials located the trapped men and drilled a rescue shaft to bring them to the surface.

Using a mesh rescue capsule lowered into the shaft, crews pulled the miners out, one by one. Fogle was the first to reach the surface about 1 a.m. July 28, 2002.

While some of the other rescued men continued to work in the mining industry, Fogle alone went back to the face of the coal underground.

“That was just what he was,” Unger said.