Search and recovery efforts have been called off for a 62-year old welder/ironworker who was presumed dead from an explosion last Wednesday at Paradise #9 mine in Muhlenberg County. Officials indicate Richard Knapp of West Frankfort, Illinois had suffered critical injuries at the KenAmerican Resources mine in Bremen.
Company employees, along with mine safety officials worked last week to clear the 380-foot mine elevator shaft of explosive methane gases in order to access the shaft and recover Knapp’s body. Officials say those gasses dissipated enough Saturday morning to allow the repeated lowering of a camera, which caught no sight of the worker at the water-filled bottom.
According to officials, mine owners made the decision to halt further recovery attempts so as not to jeopardize any rescue workers who have had to be lowered down the elevator shaft to search for Knapp.
Knapp, an employee of Fricke Management and Contracting of Murphysboro, Illinois was constructing a form which would be used to fill a mine shaft with concrete, part of an effort to seal and close the idled mine. Officials indicate the second of two methane gas explosions in the shaft caused Knapp to fall into the opening.
