Tom Foy remembers the happiest day of his life as the time when he and eight other miners were rescued after being trapped underground for three days in a flooded coal mine.
Now, more than eight years after the Quecreek miners were pulled to safety, Foy and others involved in the 2002 mine accident are waiting to hear good news from Chile. Thirty-three miners have been trapped underground there since Aug. 5.
"A miner's a miner," Foy told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "We're all like brothers."
Foy recalled his 77 hours underground as "three days of hell."
"We were soaking in water, nothing to eat," Foy told the newspaper. "When we came up, that was the happiest day of my life."
Officials in Chile have drilled a hole to the miners, and will pull the men out one-by-one in a specially designed capsule. Chilean officials hope to start the process as early as Tuesday night. The men are about a half mile underground.
At the Quecreek mine, the miners were trapped 240 feet underground.
"It's going to be rough on some of them," Foy said. "It was on us when we first got out. Everybody's going to want to talk to you."
Bill Arnold, who established the Quecreek Mine Rescue Foundation and visitors center at the site of the accident, was one of the first people who responded to Quecreek. His family farm is located above the mine, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
"I can imagine emotions must be running really high in Chile," he told the newspaper. "I think there's an electricity and an excitement and an anxiousness to move forward."
Another person who helped with the rescue, Sipesville Fire Chief James Shroyer, said he hopes to watch the Chilean rescue on TV.
"Their rescue is a lot bigger than ours was, but they are both really great events," Shroyer said. "You never forget that feeling — there's a lot of joy, excitement and a lot of happiness when you first hear they broke through."
The Rev. Barry Ritenour will also be watching. He ministered to the Quecreek miners' family during the wait for their loved ones.
"The night we found out the nine were alive, the place erupted with great joy," he said. "I can imagine with 33, it's probably utter chaos."
