115 miners saved: Now for their 38 co-workers
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
April 6, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RESCUERS have pulled out 115 miners alive from a north China coal mine - where some ate sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept - after flooding trapped them for more than a week.
Officials said 153 miners were trapped in the unfinished Wangjialing mine in Xiangning County, Shanxi Province, after it filled with water on March 28.
The survivors were pulled out early yesterday morning and throughout yesterday and, amazingly, all are reported to be in a stable condition.
Thirty-eight miners are still missing.
"It is a miracle in China's mining rescue history," said Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, waiting at the pit entrance.
The government mobilized thousands of rescuers to pump out water and search for the workers, but hopes of anyone emerging alive dimmed until rescuers heard knocking on a mine pipe on Friday.
As the water level continued to drop, rescuers with rubber boats squeezed through the narrow, low-ceilinged passages late on Sunday and pulled out the first nine survivors just after midnight.
Eleven hours later, the large wave of rescues began.
Authorities said most of the survivors were brought out from a working platform, where rescuers had drilled a vertical hole last week.
The hole ensured oxygen in the water-flooded pit, while rescuers sent down glucose.
The survivors were brought out on stretchers to loud cheering and clapping from scores of rescue workers who had toiled tirelessly day and night.
Ambulances lined the road out of the mine to take the survivors to hospital.
Thousands of family members and other onlookers stood along the road, bursting into applause when the ambulances passed.
Residents converged on a hospital treating survivors with gifts of milk and food.
"I have two daughters and a son ... I have to do mining work to earn money for them," said a 45-year-old survivor at the Shanxi Aluminium Plant Hospital.
The hospital is among five taking survivors from the mine.
"How fantastic to be up on ground again," said a 27-year-old survivor.
He said he heard applause when he was lifted out.
He shook hands with some survivors brought out.
One of the surviving workers borrowed a cell phone from a doctor to call his family in central China's Henan Province.
"I'm good. How are you and the kid?" he said to his wife, according to a report on the Website of the People's Daily newspaper.
The rescued survivors were weak but lucid, identifying themselves to doctors, the China News Service reported.
Liu Qiang, a medical officer involved in the rescue, said the survivors had hypothermia, severe dehydration and skin infections from being in the water so long.
Some were also in shock and had low blood pressure.
A miner described eating sawdust and tree bark and drinking the murky water, the leader of one of the rescue teams, Chen Yongsheng, told a news conference yesterday afternoon.
Liu Dezheng, spokesman for the rescue headquarters, said yesterday: "Rescuers are continuing the search for 38 trapped miners and the rescue work is still challenging."
Chen Yongsheng, a captain of the rescue team, said his team hadn't yet reached two working platforms in the pit, where the remaining trapped workers may be.
He said rescuers had used five-seat kayaks to bring out the trapped miners.
A team of medical experts organized by the Ministry of Health has arrived in Shanxi to aid the rescue work.
Officials said 153 miners were trapped in the unfinished Wangjialing mine in Xiangning County, Shanxi Province, after it filled with water on March 28.
The survivors were pulled out early yesterday morning and throughout yesterday and, amazingly, all are reported to be in a stable condition.
Thirty-eight miners are still missing.
"It is a miracle in China's mining rescue history," said Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, waiting at the pit entrance.
The government mobilized thousands of rescuers to pump out water and search for the workers, but hopes of anyone emerging alive dimmed until rescuers heard knocking on a mine pipe on Friday.
As the water level continued to drop, rescuers with rubber boats squeezed through the narrow, low-ceilinged passages late on Sunday and pulled out the first nine survivors just after midnight.
Eleven hours later, the large wave of rescues began.
Authorities said most of the survivors were brought out from a working platform, where rescuers had drilled a vertical hole last week.
The hole ensured oxygen in the water-flooded pit, while rescuers sent down glucose.
The survivors were brought out on stretchers to loud cheering and clapping from scores of rescue workers who had toiled tirelessly day and night.
Ambulances lined the road out of the mine to take the survivors to hospital.
Thousands of family members and other onlookers stood along the road, bursting into applause when the ambulances passed.
Residents converged on a hospital treating survivors with gifts of milk and food.
"I have two daughters and a son ... I have to do mining work to earn money for them," said a 45-year-old survivor at the Shanxi Aluminium Plant Hospital.
The hospital is among five taking survivors from the mine.
"How fantastic to be up on ground again," said a 27-year-old survivor.
He said he heard applause when he was lifted out.
He shook hands with some survivors brought out.
One of the surviving workers borrowed a cell phone from a doctor to call his family in central China's Henan Province.
"I'm good. How are you and the kid?" he said to his wife, according to a report on the Website of the People's Daily newspaper.
The rescued survivors were weak but lucid, identifying themselves to doctors, the China News Service reported.
Liu Qiang, a medical officer involved in the rescue, said the survivors had hypothermia, severe dehydration and skin infections from being in the water so long.
Some were also in shock and had low blood pressure.
A miner described eating sawdust and tree bark and drinking the murky water, the leader of one of the rescue teams, Chen Yongsheng, told a news conference yesterday afternoon.
Liu Dezheng, spokesman for the rescue headquarters, said yesterday: "Rescuers are continuing the search for 38 trapped miners and the rescue work is still challenging."
Chen Yongsheng, a captain of the rescue team, said his team hadn't yet reached two working platforms in the pit, where the remaining trapped workers may be.
He said rescuers had used five-seat kayaks to bring out the trapped miners.
A team of medical experts organized by the Ministry of Health has arrived in Shanxi to aid the rescue work.
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