Little hope for trapped miners in Colombia
Source: Agencies |
June 19, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
COLOMBIAN authorities are holding out little hope for the dozens of coal miners trapped underground by an explosion that killed at least 18 workers during a shift change.
National disaster director Luz Amanda Pulido tells The Associated Press that chances are very slim that any of the approximately 50 trapped miners are still alive given the accumulation of methane gas and carbon monoxide in the San Fernando mine.
Relatives held wakes yesterday for some of those killed in Wednesday night's fiery blast in a 2-kilometer access tunnel.
Pulido says that rescue efforts are being hampered by gas buildups in the mine.
The biggest loss of life in a Colombian mining disaster was in 1977, when 85 people died at a different mine in Amaga.
Rescue halted
Rescue efforts for more than 50 miners believed missing were suspended late Thursday as relatives awaited word on the fate of the trapped workers.
Methane and carbon monoxide in the mine impeded efforts to get to where rescuers thought the miners were trapped by the explosion on Wednesday at the San Fernando mine, south of Medellin in Antioquia state.
"It's impossible that anyone is alive," said a sobbing Diana Sepulveda, 28, whose husband, 25-year-old Wilson Salinas, had begun work at the mine just eight days earlier. "If the explosion didn't kill him, the gas did because it was very dense."
There were 70 to 80 workers in the mine and a shift change was in progress when the explosion occurred, officials said, adding that two injured workers escaped. Sixteen bodies were recovered.
"I felt the explosion and it lifted me up. I felt the flames on me," a surviving miner, Walter Restrepo, told RCN Television from a hospital bed where he was recovering from burns.
A methane gas buildup is believed to have fed the explosion in a long access tunnel that drops to a depth of 150 meters.
There were conflicting reports from Colombian officials on whether parts of the tunnel, supported by cement-reinforced steel arches, had collapsed.
Antioquia state mining secretary Nicolas Lopez said the mine's ventilation system was damaged but had resumed operation.
National disaster director Luz Amanda Pulido tells The Associated Press that chances are very slim that any of the approximately 50 trapped miners are still alive given the accumulation of methane gas and carbon monoxide in the San Fernando mine.
Relatives held wakes yesterday for some of those killed in Wednesday night's fiery blast in a 2-kilometer access tunnel.
Pulido says that rescue efforts are being hampered by gas buildups in the mine.
The biggest loss of life in a Colombian mining disaster was in 1977, when 85 people died at a different mine in Amaga.
Rescue halted
Rescue efforts for more than 50 miners believed missing were suspended late Thursday as relatives awaited word on the fate of the trapped workers.
Methane and carbon monoxide in the mine impeded efforts to get to where rescuers thought the miners were trapped by the explosion on Wednesday at the San Fernando mine, south of Medellin in Antioquia state.
"It's impossible that anyone is alive," said a sobbing Diana Sepulveda, 28, whose husband, 25-year-old Wilson Salinas, had begun work at the mine just eight days earlier. "If the explosion didn't kill him, the gas did because it was very dense."
There were 70 to 80 workers in the mine and a shift change was in progress when the explosion occurred, officials said, adding that two injured workers escaped. Sixteen bodies were recovered.
"I felt the explosion and it lifted me up. I felt the flames on me," a surviving miner, Walter Restrepo, told RCN Television from a hospital bed where he was recovering from burns.
A methane gas buildup is believed to have fed the explosion in a long access tunnel that drops to a depth of 150 meters.
There were conflicting reports from Colombian officials on whether parts of the tunnel, supported by cement-reinforced steel arches, had collapsed.
Antioquia state mining secretary Nicolas Lopez said the mine's ventilation system was damaged but had resumed operation.
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