'Greed led to mine disaster'
Death toll in Chinese pit blast could reach 66November 30, 2004 Edition 1
Tongchuan (China): Hopes of finding alive 141 workers trapped in a north China coal mine all but vanished yesterday as officials and angry relatives blamed the disaster on the management's drive for
profit.
While the main ventilation system at the Chenjiashan Coal Mine was repaired, allowing rescue efforts to resume, the chances of anyone having survived Sunday's gas explosion was virtually nil, a local communist party secretary said.
Twenty-five miners have already been confirmed dead which, if those trapped do not survive, would make it the worst Chinese mining accident in more than a decade.
"They have no chance of surviving at all, not even a one percent chance," said Yan Mangxue, the communist party secretary for Yaoyu village, home of 14 of the trapped miners.
"Imagine a gas poisoning inside your home, you would die in no more than half an hour. Inside a mine, with no air ventilation, it's much faster. In five minutes you would lose your life," Yan said.
A total of 293 miners were underground at the mine in Tongchuan city, in Shaanxi province, when the accident happened. About 127 miners escaped. At least 15 were in a serious condition.
"Many of them suffered serious burns, including to their faces," said a miner who escaped.
Families and colleagues of the trapped miners who rushed to the mine, in a mountain valley surrounded by terraced fields carved into the mountainsides, were mentally preparing themselves for the worst.
Devastated
Many of them were devastated by the realisation that there was little hope, and were angered by the lack of information about the rescue efforts.
"All of us are here looking for our husbands, fathers, sons and brothers," Wang Pingshan, whose brother was trapped, said inside a courtyard where hundreds of distraught family and friends were awaiting news.
In the mine's huge compound of stores and dormitories, grieving women were slumped on the streets, crying as people tried to comfort them.
Many of them directed their anger at the mine's management after it was revealed that a fire had broken out at the same pit and that high gas density had been detected about a week ago.
Despite miners' concerns, they were ordered to continue working or face fines.
About 10 relatives stormed the management office yesterday afternoon, smashing windows before being calmed and persuaded to leave.
Party secretary Yan, citing the preliminary findings of the investigation led by China's cabinet, the State Council, said the cause of the blast could be directly attributed to "negligence and greed".
He said a blaze had started in the mine on November 19. Although it had been put out on November 23, the gas density in the shafts still exceeded the limit considered safe.
"Under those conditions, the management should have immediately discontinued production," Yan said.
He said the mine bosses were more concerned with increasing profits, and indicated that arrests were imminent.
The blast came barely a month after 148 workers were killed by an explosion in a mine in Henan province. - Sapa-AFP
