Beaconsfield, Australia ? Rescuers began drilling today toward two miners who have survived more than five days trapped deep in an Australian gold mine, as the tiny community the men live in celebrated the news they are still alive.

Todd Russell, 34, and Brant Webb, 37, were trapped last Tuesday evening nearly 3,000 feet underground when a small earthquake triggered a rock collapse that killed one of their workmates, Larry Knight.

Since the collapse, miners have been using explosives to blast a tunnel toward the trapped men, not knowing if they were dead or alive. But late Sunday afternoon, rescuers’ microphones detected the sound of the two men talking.

When the rescuers finally managed to communicate with Russell and Webb, the miners had one request: food, and more specifically, bacon and eggs.

Word of their incredible survival, trapped together in a tiny protective cage on a piece of mine machinery, sparked jubilation in Beaconsfield, a small mining community on Australia’s island state of Tasmania.

However, the joy was tempered by sympathy for the family of Knight, whose body was retrieved on Thursday.

Members of Knight’s family were among hundreds of people who converged on Russell’s home to celebrate Sunday night.

“Last night, Larry’s family came down onto our front lawn with those 200 people and told us how lucky we were and shared our happiness, with their grief. I was grateful,” Russell’s father, Noel, told Australian television’s Seven network. “They were the brave people.”

Rescuers have drilled a very small tunnel through to the trapped men and were hoping to get food and water to them later today, but officials warned it could take up to two more days before they are finally freed.

Rescuers hope to drill directly to where Webb and Russell are huddled, in cramped conditions.