Miners stayed alive for 10 hours

PHILIPPI, W.Va. - In the darkness of the Sago Mine, one of 12 trapped coal miners scrawled a timeline detailing how he was alive but losing air at least 10 hours after an underground explosion, his daughter said Saturday. &#8220Each time he documented, you could tell it was getting worse,” Ann Merideth told The Associated Press of the note written by her father, 61-year-old shuttle car operator Jim Bennett. &#8220Later on down the note, he said that it was getting dark. It was getting smoky. They were losing air.” If he was lucid enough to be writing 10 hours after the blast, he could have been saved - but the rescue operation didn't move fast enough, Merideth said. The first rescuers didn't go into the mine until 11 hours after the blast,