The owner of the Utah coal mine where six miners are trapped in an underground collapse worked for North Dakota's largest coal mine operator two decades ago.

Robert E. Murray, owner of Murray Energy Corp., was fired by North American Coal Corp. in 1987, without public explanation by the company.

He went on to form his own coal mine company, now the 12th largest coal operator in the country and half owner of the Utah mine that collapsed early Monday.

He's directing operations to rescue the miners who are trapped 1,500 feet underground.

The Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah has been cited hundreds of times by the Mine Safety and Health Administration for safety infractions, including more than 100 for issues that could cause injury or death to miners.

Despite the history of citations from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, including one issued last month for failing to provide escape passageways in the Crandall Canyon Mine, Murray was quoted by USA Today that the mine has an excellent safety record.

He says the collapse was caused by an earthquake, while seismologists say seismic recordings indicate an implosion rather than an earthquake.

While Murray was in North Dakota, North American was phasing out its Indian Head Mine at Zap and expanding operations at the Coteau Freedom Mine north of Beulah and the Falkirk Mine near Underwood.

In his personal biography at www.ohiovalleycoal.com, Murray says he was president of North American's western division and its four North Dakota subsidiaries starting in 1974, when miners at the Zap mine went on a lengthy and bitter strike.

He said one day in 1987, someone (at North American) told him, "This is your last day. You're done," ending a 31-year career with North American.

In 1988, Murray purchased North American's Ohio Valley Coal Co. and has since expanded his coal mine holdings into Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois and Utah.

Murray said in his biography that being fired by North American "was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Dallas Wolf, a former North Dakota coal miner, now of Wyoming, who worked under Murray before he was fired, doesn't have fond memories of Murray.

Wolf, who was a coal miner at North American's Indian Head Mine at Zap and a United Mine Workers of America local president, said it was the best thing that ever happened to the miners, too.

"They pushed him out and we all cheered," Wolf said. "He was impossible to deal with. It was his way or the highway."

Murray says he will spare no expense to rescue the miners and said if they're in a cavern and without any indication so far that fire consumed the oxygen there, they could survive for weeks.