Page 4 - Cape Breton Dragerman at Westray: George Muise, New Waterford

ISSUE : Issue 62

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/1/1

WESTRAY MINE PLAN Drawing by George Muise LEGEND / 3 crosscut ''''' Air Base FAB Impassable Fall xxxxxx Falls teams managed to pass ooooo Debris which required move? ment or working around aaaaaa 4 crosscut Temporary seals == surface didn't feel right. But that's the limit of the machine, and we're only part of a big group that was up there working there. And we knew that we would be turning it over to another mine res? cue team that would continue on. (Announcer: On Day Two, George Muise was still leading one of the second- line rescue teams. The underground fresh-air base had been established at Number 8 crosscut. That's about 4000 feet down. Overnight, one of the ad? vance teams made its way from there in? to the closest working section of the mine, the southwest main. The team dis? covered 11 bodies. (George has 13 years experience under? ground, and special mine rescue train? ing. But his experience as a volunteer fireman in Glace Bay prepared him most for the work he faced that Sunday morning.) George: I've seen lots of bodies. I've seen bodies in a lot worse condition then I've seen at Westray. Matter of fact, I wasn't even home a week and I took three people out of a house fire in Glace Bay: a young 10-year-old girl and her parents. Myself, when I come across that, I try to--I don't know how to de? scribe it, but I kind of try to treat the body as a mannikin or something in? animate, you know. Just go in and get the job done, and cover it up or take it out or whatever I have to do. And I find that's the best way to deal with it. (Announcer: The job of George's team on Day Two was to go into the southwest main, extract three bodies from the wreckage, and put them into body bags. Then carry one of them out.) We again prepared our machines and headed back down into the mine. Trans- JrAS/'Agenof We plan it all for you. 794-7251 158 QUEEN ST.. NORTH SYDNEY

Cape Breton's Magazine