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May 16, 2022 - A member of the “Quecreek 9” died on Friday. Dennis “Harpo” Hall, 68, of Benscreek, passed away at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown. From July 24-28, 2002, Hall and eight other coal miners were trapped about 245 feet below the surface at Quecreek Mine in Lincoln Township. All of them were successfully saved in the “Nine for Nine” rescue that drew international attention.
“I spent 77 hours not knowing if we would get out,” Hall said in a 2008 Tribune-Democrat article about a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Quecreek Mine Rescue Foundation visitors center. The miners became trapped after breaking into an adjacent abandoned, improperly mapped, water-filled mine area, which resulted in more than 50 million gallons of water flooding into Quecreek Mine. Hall is credited with helping save the lives of nine other nearby miners when he made a call and warned about the rushing water. “A little girl came up to me in church one day and said ‘you saved my daddy’s life,’ ” Hall recalled in the 2008 story. “I just broke down.”
Hall had been involved in a few other serious mining incidents, according to a 2002 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Dennis Hall started mining at 19 and earned his nickname, ‘Harpo,’ a decade-and-a-half ago when he sported longish, curly hair,” according to the story. “He knew the job was dangerous: A quarter-century ago, a cave-in trapped him for an hour in a northern Somerset County mine. On one job, a drill let loose and walloped him in the jaw, breaking his lower denture into six pieces and gashing his face.” Hall was born on Oct. 16, 1953 in Johnstown. He was a hunter, fisherman and knife maker. A 1972 graduate of Conemaugh Township High School, Hall is survived by his wife of 42 years, Paulette (Filo) Hall; two sons, Justin (Kayla) Hall and Derek Hall; two brothers, Jon and Wayne Hall; sisters and brothers-in-law Albert Filo (Joyce), Barabra (Guy Hildebrand), Pauline Nemeth, and Deborah Dorchak, according to his obituary at tributearchive.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Hall’s name to the American Heart Association at www.heart.org. |
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