New Zealand mourns 29 perished coal miners

Summary:

This article writes about the recent happenings of coal mining explosion in Greymouth, New Zealand. This has been one of the worst that has happened since 70 years ago. Flags flew at half-staff in memory of the 29 miners trapped nearly a week ago. There was a second explosion in the Pike River Coal mine on Wednesday. Police said there were no survivors.

The 29 miners were trapped in the 1.4-mile main tunnel last Friday night when methane gas caused a massive explosion in the mountain. Two other miners working away from the coal face narrowly escaped and walked out of the mine.

On Wednesday, rescue teams had to haul after reviewing the gas levels that had stopped them entering earlier when the second gas explosion occurred. Some miners' relatives were brought to the site to allow relatives' to understand the situation - why rescue was put to haul. Rescue teams sent robots and electronic devices to explore the mine but found no signs of any survivors from the initial blast.

New Zealand's worst mining disaster happened in 1896, when 65 miners were killed by gas in the Brunner coal mine. Around 200 people, including one of the survivors, miners' families and the mine company's senior executives, attended a church service on Wednesday night to mourn. The New Zealand stock exchange said the market would open five minutes late as a mark of respect for the disaster.

Authorities are believed to be looking at pumping inert gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the mine to put out any fires before making any attempt to recover the bodies. This disaster was declared as a national tragedy.

Both blasts were believed to have been caused by explosive, toxic gases swirling in the tunnels dug up to 1½ miles into a mountain that had also prevented rescuers from entering the mine to search for the missing. Officials said the second blast could not have been prevented and was not a result of any of the rescue activities.

The second blast came hours after the first progress in days for the rescue attempt, when a drilling team broke a narrow shaft through to the section of the mine where the missing workers were believed to have been. And two robots crawled their way into the tunnel, giving authorities their first view of the inside of the mine.

Police superintendent Gary Knowles said after the initial blast, entering the mine was far too risky because of high gas levels and evidence of a smoldering coal fire underground that could have been the ignition source.


Comments:

My heart sank upon reading this article. This article teaches me not to take things for granted. It's too late to regret yet it seems that we always takes things for granted.

It is unfortunate that such accidents happen. This disaster has caused not only stress to the miners' family members, it also affects the country. I feel that the gas level must be so high and unacceptable, rescue works had to put to an haul. What's worst was, because it is an enclosed area, the gas is trapped inside. Thus chances of the gas level lowering to the safe level is very slow. What's worst is the miners were not connected to any fresh air or water.

To wrap up, I feel that such disasters are unavoidable as I believe that safety measures had been applied. Everyone has their role to play, and disasters like these are uncalled for. However, when such disasters happens, we should embrace ourselves and react appropriately.

-Claire