The Quecreek Mine rescue took place in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, when nine miners were trapped underground for over 77 hours, from July 24 to 28, 2002. All nine miners were rescued. Accident On July 24, eighteen coal miners at the Quecreek Mine () in Lincoln Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, owned by Black Wolf Coal Company, accidentally dug into the abandoned, poorly documented Saxman Coal / Harrison #2 Mine, flooding the room and pillar mine with an estimated of water. Both the Saxman Mine and Quecreek Mine are in the Upper Kittanning coal seam. The Upper Kittanning seam locally ranges in thickness from and dips 1.7 to 2.3 degrees (3 to 4 percent) to the northwest. The structural geology of the area caused the flooded mine void of the shallower Saxman Mine to be at a higher elevation than the active Quecreek Mine. The Saxman mine was located along the axis of the anticlinal Boswell Dome and the Quecreek Mine on the western flank of the anticline. The mine was opened by Quemahoning Creek Coal Company in 1913 as Quecreek No. 2 mine. Saxman Coal and Coke Company purchased the mine in 1925 and mined it until 1963 with an idle period from 1934 through 1941. The mine had also been named Saxman, Harrison, and most recently, Harrison No. 2. The miners were working on July 24 in the 1-Left panel. The 1-Left panel was driven up dip from the Mains for approximately . The flooded abandoned mine was located immediately up-dip of the Quecreek #1 mine permit boundary in the Upper Kittanning coal seam. At approximately 9p.m. on Wednesday, July 24, the eighteen miners were in danger underground, below the fields of Dormel Farm when the flooded Saxman mine was breached as the mining progressed eastward. Water had broken through the face and was inundating the entry, and the nine miners in the 1-Left panel area used the mine's phone system to notify the other group of nine miners in the 2-Left panel to evacuate immediately. These miners were able to escape at around 9:45p.m. and alert others, and a 911 call was made at 9:53p.m. However, the mine was flooding too rapidly for the miners in the 1-Left panel area to evacuate. Twice they tried to travel in the four-foot-high tunnels over to a shaft that would lead them to the surface, but these were also flooded. Back on