The Region : 3 Miners Die; Carbon Monoxide Blamed

Carbon monoxide spewing from a pump on the bottom of a remote desert mine shaft in Blythe apparently killed three miners, officials reported. According to Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Denver Pittman, the men were pronounced dead after a rescue team was summoned by the father of one of the victims. One of the men passed out shortly after he started the pump’s engine on the bottom of the 80-foot mine in the desert community 200 miles east of Los Angeles, an investigator with the county coroner’s office said, and a second victim, who apparently went to help the first man, was also overcome by the fumes. The third tried to climb out but passed out and fell down the shaft.