My heart goes out to the families of the missing miners.

The Utah coal mine where three rescuers were killed and six men remained trapped will cease operations when the flagging effort to locate the missing is finally called off, mine operator Robert E. Murray said Wednesday. The statement by the combative chief executive of Murray Energy reversed earlier company statements that held the possibility of continued mining in a mountain that is coming to be regarded as a tomb.

In a lengthy telephone interview after several days away from the public eye, Murray both accepted personal responsibility “for what I’ve done to these miners and these families” and said he was unaware of key details about the risks of mining in the area of the huge Aug. 6 cave-in.

Despite statements by a company vice president over the weekend, Murray said he made the decision to shutter the entire Crandall Canyon mine last Friday, the morning after helping to pull dead and injured rescuers from the shaft that exploded onto them as they burrowed through the earlier collapse.

“I told Mr. Richard Stickler the next morning, ‘I’m submitting to you a plan to seal this mine. This mountain is alive,’ ” Murray said, referring to the head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which is part of the Labor Department.

Murray, 67, was by turns unapologetic and remorseful in the interview. He said he was under a doctor’s care for a day and a half after helping to carry the dead and injured from Thursday’s catastrophic cave-in.

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