Hopes dim for missing Mexico miners after blast
Source: Agencies |
May 5, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RESCUE workers said yesterday there is little hope that nine missing miners have survived a coal mine explosion that killed at least five people in northern Mexico.
The gas explosion that ripped through the primitive, vertical-shaft mine in San Juan de Sabinas early on Tuesday was so powerful it seriously injured a 15-year-old boy working on a conveyor belt outside the pit.
Labor Secretary Javier Lozano said that left little possibility that those inside could have withstood the force of the blast.
"The outlook is very bad," Lozano said at the scene. "The truth is that it does not allow us to hold out much hope."
The injured boy had been separating coal from tailings. Federal prosecutors later said one of the boy's arms had been amputated and that he remained in serious condition.
A team of four rescuers which entered the mine quickly found the bodies of three miners in front of the rubble shaken loose by the blast. The mine employees later found two more bodies, and one rescuer who had been down the partially collapsed shaft said there was little chance anyone survived.
"We have to stop thinking they could be alive," said Fernando Garza, a 44-year-old miner. "Everything inside collapsed. We know the bodies are on the floor of the mine, but we haven't been able to secure the area."
Garza, who was resting after authorities suspended the rescue efforts because of gas buildup, said the bodies that have been recovered were all burned.
Just hours earlier, officials had been hoping for a miracle rescue, like that of the 33 miners who were rescued after surviving 69 days underground following the August 5 collapse of the San Jose mine in Chile. Lozano said Mexico had asked Chile for help, and that four experts were expected to arrive shortly.
The 14 miners were down the 60-meter-deep shaft when the explosion ripped through the mine, which had opened just over a month ago and employed about 25 miners.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon issued a statement late on Tuesday expressing condolences to the victims' families.
The gas explosion that ripped through the primitive, vertical-shaft mine in San Juan de Sabinas early on Tuesday was so powerful it seriously injured a 15-year-old boy working on a conveyor belt outside the pit.
Labor Secretary Javier Lozano said that left little possibility that those inside could have withstood the force of the blast.
"The outlook is very bad," Lozano said at the scene. "The truth is that it does not allow us to hold out much hope."
The injured boy had been separating coal from tailings. Federal prosecutors later said one of the boy's arms had been amputated and that he remained in serious condition.
A team of four rescuers which entered the mine quickly found the bodies of three miners in front of the rubble shaken loose by the blast. The mine employees later found two more bodies, and one rescuer who had been down the partially collapsed shaft said there was little chance anyone survived.
"We have to stop thinking they could be alive," said Fernando Garza, a 44-year-old miner. "Everything inside collapsed. We know the bodies are on the floor of the mine, but we haven't been able to secure the area."
Garza, who was resting after authorities suspended the rescue efforts because of gas buildup, said the bodies that have been recovered were all burned.
Just hours earlier, officials had been hoping for a miracle rescue, like that of the 33 miners who were rescued after surviving 69 days underground following the August 5 collapse of the San Jose mine in Chile. Lozano said Mexico had asked Chile for help, and that four experts were expected to arrive shortly.
The 14 miners were down the 60-meter-deep shaft when the explosion ripped through the mine, which had opened just over a month ago and employed about 25 miners.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon issued a statement late on Tuesday expressing condolences to the victims' families.
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