Three men were found dead

[flyspekau]

Three men were found dead late Saturday night inside an abandoned Gold Rush-era gold mine in O’Neals, California.

The dead men were identified as David Alan Alison, 25, and Matthew Terry Alison, 23, both of Prather, and Brannon David Scharf, 26, of Madera.

The bodies were spotted about 11 p.m. about 20 feet into the mine, which lies a quarter of a mile from Road 210, roughly a mile past Topping Ranch Road.

Cal Fire firefighters responded to rescue the men, but firefighters had to request assistance from the Madera County Fire Department’s hazardous materials unit because of high levels of carbon monoxide and little oxygen.

The abandoned mine is one of several mines built during the California Gold Rush, according to the Madera County Sheriffs Department.

Unlike some mines, the O’Neals gold mine is not a preserved historic site, the sheriff's department said. Eastern Madera County has several abandoned mines and they are still open but remain dangerous.

 

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[Cynangyl]

ouch! I would have thought the firefighters would have donned their scott packs and been able to go in but if the men were obviously dead they were definitely smart to have called the assistance in....better safe than sorry ALWAYS. Hopefully they will make certain and clearly mark the entrance at the very least so that others do not suffer the same fate.

 

[bootybay]

That is very sad..so very young... prayer to their families..

at first I thought I was going to read that some miners were killed for their gold, beings as the economy is god awful... but this is just as bad.. I just hope all you miners out there have all the safety stuff you need and carry protection as well.. times are getting real scary..

keep the miners all safe.. blessings to you all..

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

That is very sad news.

However, people are always doing that - they poke around in either abandoned mines, or even mines that are worked on a regular basis during certain parts of the year - and, they just don't understand the ramifications. They THINK they do - and I am guilty - I too, like to poke around mines.

Here is a big problem with poking around mines - everyone goes in - they gotta take a sample here and there, and the shaft or adit gets unstable. Along comes someone else, and 1 blow of a hammer makes it all fall down.

Our adits are CONSTANTLY being poked in, and highgraded, and we spend a considerable amount of time, every year, shoring walls, taking down ceilings and cleaning up dirt debris, until we have it safe enough (the right tunnel configuration), to do any actual mining. Some years it looks like a bunch of mice went through and made it look like swiss cheese.

Other people who, rightly so, are nervous about going in too far, so they stay within the first 40 feet or so - heads up - that is the MOST dangerous place to be. Weather (rain, snow, wind) affects and decomposes the first few feet the MOST, and the entrances are the MOST
unstable.

I've told the story before, but, we have participated in digging out one person - buried still standing up - I never want to have to do that again.

B

 

[Cynangyl]

Yikes B....I sure hope you never have to do that again either! I would love to go in one but probably quite luckily I have not been around one to go look inside....if I were, I would hope someone far more knowledable was there to show me around and make sure I did not do anything stupid! So very sad that people go in and start poking holes and such...especially if it is a mine that is a working mine and does not belong to them. I hate to hear of folks being hurt or even worse, dying from trying to satisfy their curiosity and hopefully it will be a warning to those of us that are eternally curious of how very dangerous it can be. I can't even imagine what the families of these men are going through.

 

[stefen]

A few years back several people died in a similar manner in an old silver mine in Silverado Canyon (Orange County, CA).

 

[AU Seeker]

I will post a link to this sad story, everyone PLEASE, THINK! and be CAREFUL!!!!!

This was a "newbie mistake", gas motor in an enclosed space with no ventilation!

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/609339.html


Skip

 

[truckinbutch]

Official says "They were not doing anything'wrong'."
Bullcrap! I bleed for anyone who loses their life underground.I've dug out too many friends and wraped them in a blanket for their last trip to the outside.
These unfortunate folks paid the ultimate price for doing it all wrong.Three young lives destroyed by their own malfesience.
Now some lawyer is going to try to find someone with money to blame for their loss.

 

[kuger]

I have preached myself blue in the face about the dangers of old mines(the new ones are bad enough!!)I have grown up in an area that has literally thousands of old mines and shafts and was taught at a very young age the dangers and have still got into bad situations.I once explored into a mine that had some very prosing looking mineral formation at the adit and against my better judgement ventured in further to get a sample and all of sudden(a split second )I started feeling very dizzy,started seeing stars and could not breath at all....it was all I could do to get out.Very close to a bad situation.People die in them every year and I expect to see alot more of these unfortunate stories that every greenhorn thinks they can go out and get that $1000 gold.

 

[truckinbutch]

Second best friend I had all my years underground was my flame safety lamp.
Best friend was my "cowardly"nature.Run at a hint of danger,you can always come back.

 

[Cynangyl]

I have preached myself blue in the face about the dangers of old mines(the new ones are bad enough!!)I have grown up in an area that has literally thousands of old mines and shafts and was taught at a very young age the dangers and have still got into bad situations.I once explored into a mine that had some very prosing looking mineral formation at the adit and against my better judgement ventured in further to get a sample and all of sudden(a split second )I started feeling very dizzy,started seeing stars and could not breath at all....it was all I could do to get out.Very close to a bad situation.People die in them every year and I expect to see alot more of these unfortunate stories that every greenhorn thinks they can go out and get that $1000 gold.

Very good point my friend! The media is hyping up the price of gold like there is no tomorrow....unfortunately they are not discussing the dangers of exploring and how desperately important it is to thoroughly understand how to be safe.

Second best friend I had all my years underground was my flame safety lamp.
Best friend was my "cowardly"nature.Run at a hint of danger,you can always come back.

I do believe you have some great friends there!

 

[aa battery]

Had permission to hunt in that area 2 years ago. This is truly sad.....aa

 

[centennial]

Very very sad about these guys , unfortunately incidents with petrol motors and confined spaces have killed many people.
Petrol motors give of large amounts of carbon monoxide, a very very dangerous gas. CO2 is colourless and ordourless and is absorbed by the body very easily, you will be dead without realising. Many cases like this cause multiple fatalities because people see there mate down and go to help, then there dead too, happens all the time.
Anyone exploring old mines needs to have confined space training and a gas detector, a canary will fall of its perch with low levels of co2 giving you plenty of warning to get out ,but wont give any indication of low oxygen, nomally gold mines dont have a gas problem unless you introduce one.You need to be wary of low oxygen levels though. If you think you will notice the effects of gas or low oxygen levels and get out before its to late YOU WONT.
Diesel motors with catalytic convertors are safe to use underground with proper ventilation and monitoring, they produce far less co2 than petrol motors which should not even be used anywhere near a tunnel or shaft.
Decaying timber can use up oxygen, you wont even know that you died.
Stagnent water can produce H2SO4 ( rotten egg gas ) trouble is with this is that you smell it, then the smell goes away and you think your safe ,whats happened is first thing this gas does is kill your sense of smell then it kills you.
I just love exploring old mines
Sorry about these poor guys and there families.

 

[Hoser John]

Dumb-dumber-and dumbest-dead. This year will be a banner year of ignorance as the newbies are hitting the hills doing all the stupid stuff that any normal person wouldn't do in a 100 years. The death toll will set records. I lost a great friend to this stupidity last year on the SF American!!!John

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

It is always sad when someone dies - especially when it has to do with this type of thing.

Like TT said, they will use it against ALL miners, md-ers, etc.

It doesn't matter to me if they are they legally or not - (in this instance), dead is dead. And even people with lots of experience, screw up.
With the "I'll just check this out real quick" - heck - the GPAA guys - old George and Tom, are always places that they really shouldn't be, and televise it - Tom has gotten himself AND his wife AND his crew in trouble on a number of occasions.

We take lamps into the tunnels in California all the time - but not for light - just for emergency - littered along the way, just in case. They are the battery operated ones. And a soda bottle - a glass one. We prop it on a rock, very precariously, every time. An old miner taught us this trick - it will shake and fall off and you run like heck out of the adit - because by the time we are out of the tunnel - an earthquake has started.

Luckily, there have only been 2 while in the tunnels - but they start deep underground, and if you are 200 feet into a mountain, it takes a few moments for the regular ground (the one outside) to shake - the dropping bottle gets no questions from us, we run.

There is always a thick rope from the entrance to the working spot into the mine. Won't save my life, probably, but, some of those areas inside are dark, dark, dark, and as long as I can hold on to something, letting the rope slide between my hand as I run, I get can out without having to see.

You don't even have to have a gas engine to kill yourself in a mine - all you need is trapped air that is bad - and you do not always smell bad air, so you don't know until you are passing out.

And - there is always a person outside (that's the other reason for the rope - it has a bell on the outside - yank it, and the person outside knows something is wrong. (never had to use that, thank God).

I worry when we are not there (we always go in the winter time) - because, people make the assumption that, because we are not there, they are abandoned, or free for the taking. But mostly, because, we have found so much stuff left in the tunnels that, if used long enough
someone will get killed some day. People have torn off gates, fences, signs - a florescent fence we keep around a hole that is in the ground in the middle of the flats (sometimes there is water in it, sometimes its dry, but there always seems to be some ba-ha person running through it, and even an elderly gentleman who almost backed into the hole (he backed over the fencing) while making a u-turn. We even had a couple of dirt-bikers who built a little (and I do mean little) bridge over it - not a complete bridge - the kind you use to make Evil Kneivel-type jumps) - geesh. One of the guys was a professional dirt-biker!!! A few years ago we put in concrete pillars - and they were smashed by the following year.

Bottom line, some people seem to go out of their way for "a little peek", or a little weekend fun.

It's not worth it sometimes.

B

 

[Strikefleet5326s]

Has a ( cause of death ) been submitted by the M.E. yet? Also app.time of death for all 3 men?

 

[flyspekau]

Has a ( cause of death ) been submitted by the M.E. yet? Also app.time of death for all 3 men?

Madera County, CA- The family of three men killed in an abandoned gold mine over the weekend, now know their cause of death.

On Tuesday, the Madera Sheriff's Department revealed that toxicology tests have indicated all three men died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning while searching for gold.

25-year old David Alison, 23-year old Matthew Alison and 26-year old Brannon Scharf were discovered in the abandoned gold mine in O'Neals late Saturday night.

Family members believe the men may have died when the gas powered water pump they were using filled the shaft with deadly carbon monoxide gas.

 

[JakefaePa]

Very very sad about these guys , unfortunately incidents with petrol motors and confined spaces have killed many people.
Petrol motors give of large amounts of carbon monoxide, a very very dangerous gas. CO2 is colourless and ordourless and is absorbed by the body very easily, you will be dead without realising. Many cases like this cause multiple fatalities because people see there mate down and go to help, then there dead too, happens all the time.
Anyone exploring old mines needs to have confined space training and a gas detector, a canary will fall of its perch with low levels of co2 giving you plenty of warning to get out ,but wont give any indication of low oxygen, nomally gold mines dont have a gas problem unless you introduce one.You need to be wary of low oxygen levels though. If you think you will notice the effects of gas or low oxygen levels and get out before its to late YOU WONT.
Diesel motors with catalytic convertors are safe to use underground with proper ventilation and monitoring, they produce far less co2 than petrol motors which should not even be used anywhere near a tunnel or shaft.
Decaying timber can use up oxygen, you wont even know that you died.
Stagnent water can produce H2SO4 ( rotten egg gas ) trouble is with this is that you smell it, then the smell goes away and you think your safe ,whats happened is first thing this gas does is kill your sense of smell then it kills you.
I just love exploring old mines
Sorry about these poor guys and there families.

Thankfully youve addressed the real issue here , its not about poking around old mines..its about stupidity.You cany take a petrol engine down a mine..gross stupidity

 

[Yellow Hammer]

This proves my point. This new (give me) generation has no commen sense. In this world of video games, cell phones, computers and over protective parents that buy them anything they want. This new world has turned there brains to mush. OK I will get off my soap box. I feel sorry for the families that lost those kids.
No body should have to face that loss.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

sad news...but...people have been dying in mine accidents since humans began digging in the dirt.

hard rock mining is dangerous, even with a knowledgeable crew and modern equipment.

one does not need to enter the mine to be involved in an accident.

( you'll love this story)

at around 14, in superior arizona, then the deepest underground copper mine in the nation...a bunch of us locals were messing around on a hillside...now we knew there was an air shaft to a mine up there...we never could find it...and since we hunted up there a lot, we got it into our young brains to go find this shaft..for safety reasons....
lol..guess who found it...now being a resident of a mining town gives you a great respect for vertical shafts...i found the hole...cool....yell to my friends...found ittttttt....as the ground under me slid into the shaft...now i had approached from the lower side of the square hole...moved to the side..three feet away from the shaft...
safe right? noooooooo. not...30 feet into the abyss... hit the bottom...clawing the wall as i fell...feet first...thump...buttt first on a pile of debries...ok..assess...no broken bones...ok...no bleeding members...cool...now it is dark inside a mine...i have some light from above...but after assessing my position...i go to get up...put my hands down to push off the debris pile...owwwwwww cacti needles in my palms....owwwwww...i am picking the things out of my palms...now i am bleeding...dang...how did i get stickers in both palms i am thinking...then i stand up and the ancient barrel cacti that i impacted butt first comes with me...

i could sell the photos of my "friends" bending me over the hood of a 1963 ford falcon...as they pulled the needles from my cheeks...
i was still pulling broken needles out of my butt til i was 25.

don't just be careful...really pay attention.