Somerset County company uses drill to free Chilean miners
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Looking tanned, a bit tired and happy to be back, members of the Somerset County company that provided the drill that broke through to 33 miners trapped underground in Chile this past weekend returned home Tuesday.
Brandon Fisher, the owner of Center Rock Inc. of Berlin; his wife, Julie, the company's sales director; and Richard Soppe, director of construction and mining tools, first arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport. Before making the two-hour drive to the Fishers' home, they briefly recounted tales of endless days, harsh conditions, moments of dejection and then, finally, elation.
"When this drill came through the roof" to where the miners were Saturday, said Mr. Soppe, "that was something. We were jumping up and down above ground and the miners were jumping up and down below ground."
It more than made up for the language barriers, broken equipment and illness they encountered during the 37 nonstop days he and Mr. Soppe spent in Chile drilling the 2,000-foot hole, Mr. Fisher said.
"It was an exciting time, to say the least," Mr. Fisher said. "That was quite an adventure."
Ms. Fisher joined them two-and-a-half weeks ago to help deal with the crush of media -- "And just for morale and keeping Richard and I sane," Mr. Fisher said.
Noting they were just married in June, Ms. Fisher said with a laugh about her 17 days there that left all of them with chest colds: "Yeah, that was our honeymoon."
Though the miners -- trapped underground for more than two months -- were expected to start coming to the surface Tuesday night or today, Mr. Fisher said they decided they should leave to get out of the way.
"Everyone wanted to be there who drilled that hole," he said. "But we had to do the right thing and back off."
First Published October 13, 2010 12:00 am
