First responders have been pulled from the search-and-rescue effort for 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard in Unity as excavating crews look to open up and stabilize the mine sinkhole where she is believed to have fallen Monday.
Emergency crews, Pennsylvania State Police and officials from the state’s Bureau of Mine Safety have been working through the night and into the morning to access an old mine off Marguerite Road.
State police spokesman Tpr. Steve Limani said shortly before 8 a.m. that work crews are now undertaking a “heavy dig” in order to open up the area and shore up the mine.
“They don’t want people in that hole until it’s dug out and better stabilized,” Limani told TribLive.
Firefighters and multiple Murrysville Medic One vehicles left the site as the sun began to rise.
State police say they believe Pollard drove to the parking lot behind Monday’s Union Restaurant, handed two hunters a flyer about her missing cat, Pepper, and walked into in an adjacent field to look for the feline. A manhole-sized sinkhole opened up beneath her, police said.
Floodlights illuminated the area just off Marguerite Road overnight and emergency vehicles hummed a feet away from homes as the operation surpassed the 24-hour mark amid below-freezing temperatures. Members of the Pennsylvania Urban Search & Rescue team worked in shifts to conduct operations overnight.
Search and rescue personnel accessed the mine Tuesday evening that is believed to have caused the sinkhole, but were contending with debris and clay, which slowed the operation, officials said.
That area has been deteriorating for quite some time, Limani said.
“There is a very thin layer of earth and, to be honest with you, it appears to be mostly just grass interwoven where she had stepped,” he said. “There wasn’t much earth at all to hold up that space.”
Temperatures dipped into the 20s overnight.
Mud-soaked firefighters and search crews from around the region took breaks and sought warmth throughout the night inside the restaurant with donated food and drinks. Restaurant owner Anita Iannuzzo made seafood gumbo and chicken noodle soup while Limani said local restaurants, businesses and residents made donations to help fuel the operation.
As many as 100 people from multiple agencies are at the scene, as well as a search and rescue dog. Equipment from the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County and Ligonier Construction Co. is among those being used to clear dirt and debris. Crews were working about 40 feet below ground.
“The cooperation has been phenomenal,” said Mertz, who added he’s gotten offers of help from neighboring counties. “I think that the incident management team has done an outstanding job.”
Limani was adamant that crews were still focused on a rescue — the temperature in the mine is 55 degrees. Oxygen has been pumped into the mine. No sounds have been picked up on devices crews have used.
“We’re not stopping, it’s just a little bit of a switching of gears,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is it gets worse and somehow the mine collapses or another sinkhole or something else erupts because of hasty, poor decision-making on our part.”
Around-the-clock operation
Dozens of firefighters who were called in Tuesday from around the county to help with the arduous work were sent home later in the evening to rest. Some were being called back to the scene early Wednesday.
“That’s part of this great county’s mutual aid system, everybody’s willing to lend a hand,” said Bud Mertz, director of Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety. “It’s a very, very sad, but unique situation.”
Pollard was reported missing at 1 a.m. Tuesday and crews have been working nonstop since about 3:30 a.m. A camera dropped into the sinkhole revealed a shoe about 25 feet below ground level. Upon initial review, state Department of Environmental Protection officials believe the sinkhole was caused by the abandoned Marguerite Mine, which was last operated by H.C. Frick Coke Co. in 1952.
Rescuers dug a separate entrance to where they believe Pollard is because the ground around the sinkhole is unstable. Officials have vowed to search for her underground until she is found. The site is a few miles off Route 30 east, between the Inn at Mountain View and the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.
Marguerite Road was closed to traffic between Lemon Road and Coke Oven Hill Road.