Survivors Speak Out
CRIPPLE CREEK, Colo. (KRDO) – A husband and wife who were among the last to be rescued from the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine on Thursday night are now speaking to ABC and KRDO13. They say they were stranded 1,000 feet below the surface of the earth for over eight hours.
“My first reaction was, this wasn’t my plan for the day,” Rhonda Pulse said.
A Unexpected Turn of Events
The Pulse couple were out for a respite program after coming home from the missionary field Thursday when the elevator carrying another tourist group broke. Rhonda and her husband, Bret, were among the group of one dozen people still touring the mine when everything happened.
“We finish and get back to the lift and there’s a rock and some timber and some falls and … [we thought] that’s not good,” Pulse said.
Resilience and Gratitude
They say they descended around 10:30 in the morning and weren’t back up until after 7 in the evening. They credit their tour guide for keeping the group calm while waiting for first responders and technicians to work the elevator again.
“Kenton, the miner who was with us, I think was just distracting us… let’s take another tour, let’s go back again…” Pulse said.
Rhonda says the group remained calm, unknowing of what happened to the group on their way down.
Hope Amidst Darkness
“He said if we need to get out of here, I can get you out of here. I mean it’s probably eight miles and we’ll go up several ladders, and we’ll go up through several other mines, but we’ll surface, but I could walk you out of here,” Pulse said.
But as the hours stretched out, Rhonda says she began to grow weary of the fifty-degree temperatures and wondered if they would ever get out. They finally did surface, in groups of four after the sun had set.
Tragic Loss
“That’s when they broke the news that someone had died … that’s when it really hit, My heart aches for the kids and the parents of the kids who were there with him. And it feels almost selfish to be so, so grateful that we weren’t even just a little bit later,” Rhonda said.
One tour guide, Patrick Weier, died as a result of “mechanical failures” on the elevator ride down, leaving behind a seven-year-old son.
Additional Insight
Although accidents like these are rare, they serve as a reminder of the importance of safety measures when operating and maintaining mining equipment. It is crucial for companies to regularly inspect and update their machinery to prevent tragic incidents like the one at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine. Additionally, the resilience and composure shown by survivors in such situations highlight the importance of remaining calm and working together during emergencies.
