The Canary
September 06, 2024 at 04:26AMMichael Lewis has created a singular career out of finding outsized stories hidden in plain sight. Here, he goes deeper to unearth a fascinating profile of Chris Mark, a man who has worked for decades within the federal government, improving the job safety of miners—one field-tested equation at a time.
On Dec. 19, 1984, a roof collapsed inside the Wilberg Mine, just outside of Salt Lake City. The miners at Wilberg had been trying to break the world record for the most coal mined in a single day. Nine senior officials from the mine’s owner, Utah Power and Light, had entered the mine to witness history. Suddenly, a fire broke out in one of the two main tunnels. Before the executives or 18 working coal miners could escape, the roof in the second tunnel collapsed and blocked their exit. All 27 people wound up trapped inside an inferno. It would take a year to recover their bodies. And Christopher Mark thought: If they’d figured out the right formula for their pillars, they’d all still be alive.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/09/05/the-canary/
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