Blast traps 66 miners in Mexico

ITPjohn

ITPjohn

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Oh no!! Not again!! I hope for the best for their families' sake.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060219/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_mine_explosion

Blast Traps 66 Miners in Northern Mexico
19 minutes ago
Sunday Feb 19, 2006


A gas explosion Sunday at a coal mine in northern Mexico trapped 66 miners below ground and left 12 hospitalized with burns and broken bones, officials said.

The trapped miners had a limited supply of oxygen and their lives were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero Chavez, director of the Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, a private company which owns the pit.

The explosion occurred before dawn at the mine near the town of Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass on the Mexico-U.S. border, Escudero said.

The mine is about 985 feet below ground, he said.

Daniel Romo of Coahuila state's emergency services said the injured miners were being treated for burns and broken bones.

"Their lives are not in danger," he said.

Romo said they did not know how long it would take to reach the miners trapped underground.

Last month, 14 miners died in two separate accidents at mines in West Virginia. Two men died in a fire Jan. 21 at a mine in Melville, nearly three weeks after 12 men died after an explosion near Tallmansville.

In Canada last month, 72 potash miners walked away from an underground fire and toxic smoke after being locked down overnight in airtight chambers packed with enough oxygen, food and water for several days.


Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
 
Oh no! Not another one again :(
Hopefully they will find the 66 miners and rescue them safe from where they are trapped in.
 
Miners isn't suitable safe always!

Why don't all miners must close termination longer!? Reason due isn't safe for employee who working in miners.. Why don't use robots as such more safer... If Robots dies.. and always have back up another robots... so what! Human is expensive being living!
 
Search for miners suspended

Search for Mexican Miners Suspended
By IOAN GRILLO, Associated Press Writer
Friday 24 Feb 11PM

Rescue crews suspended the search for 65 trapped miners for up to three days because of dangerous gas levels, officials said Friday. Anguished relatives screamed at company executives: "You're abandoning us."

The miners have been trapped since Sunday when an explosion brought down thousands of tons of rubble and filled tunnels with toxic gas in the Pasta de Conchos coal mine.

Mine operators said late Friday that the search will be halted while machines pump out methane gas and improve the air quality in the mine.

Crews were expected to return in two to three days, said Arturo Bermea, a top mine official.

"This decision was made carefully in the interest of protecting the rescue crews," Bermea said.

A group of women attacked company executives and government officials, pulling on the men's clothing and screaming. Two women were taken away on stretchers, kicking and screaming, while the executives and officials were escorted away by police.

"We can't risk more lives," said Xavier Garcia, president of the mine owner Industrial Minera Mexico.

"We can't risk another explosion with people inside. We are making our best effort with our heart in our hand to resolve this problem."

The announcement came hours after officials and company representatives said it looked increasingly unlikely that any of the trapped miners had survived.

"Only a miracle could save them," Mexican Labor Secretary Francisco Salazar told reporters and family members who have camped for five nights outside the mine, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas.

Rescue workers had advanced 875 yards inside the 1.75-mile-long mine, to an area where as many as 26 miners were believed to be trapped. Officials said the levels of toxic gas were increasing as rescuers advanced deeper into the mine.

But some family members refused to give up.

"Juan knows the mine well. He will know what to do to get out," Silvia Rodriguez said of her brother-in-law.

"You have to wait until they find the bodies, before saying whether they are dead or alive," said Luis Gonzalez, whose nephew is missing.

Relatives prayed and sang together around camp fires.

For more than five days, rescuers have used picks, shovels, and their hands — in lieu of power machinery — to avoid more explosions.

Julia Olivares, 53, said if none of the miners survived, it will be a double tragedy for her family: Both her brother-in-law, Juan, and his brother, Amado, were trapped inside the mine.

"It is tragic that the two brothers were both working on the same night shift," Olivares said. "Their father is going through agony thinking he could lose both his sons."

On the Net:

Grupo Mexico: http://www.gmexico.com

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
 
I hope the 66 miners are back safe, anyways it's dangerous job...it's sad
 
Miner's relatives demand recovery of bodies

Mexican Miners' Relatives Demand Recovery
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago
Sunday Feb 26, 2006

With no hope of finding 65 missing miners alive, a few dozen relatives waited outside a collapsed coal mine in northern Mexico on Sunday, hoping efforts to recover remains of their kin will begin soon.

Maria Cantu said she's come to terms with the fact that her 32-year-old son, Raul Villasana, will never emerge from the mine alive, but insisted his remains must be brought out.

"They have obligation to get them out of there so they can have Christian burials," she said. "The mine is no kind of tomb for them."

A gas explosion Feb. 19 raised the temperature inside the Pasta de Conchos mine to 1,110 degrees and released toxic methane and carbon monoxide that gobbled up nearly all of the oxygen.

On Saturday mining company officials acknowledged there was no way the trapped coal miners could have survived, ending a week of anguish for relatives still holding out hope for their rescue from the mine, about 85 miles southwest of the U.S. border at Eagle Pass, Texas.

The scientists and executives from the company that owns the mine, Grupo Mexico SA de CV, say it will be until at least Monday before it will be safe enough to resume recovery efforts. Mining and government scientists said they didn't know how long it would take to search all of the mine.

Aranely Saucedo and about 15 other relatives of those buried within the mine vowed to send family members to camp outside its entrance in shifts for weeks. They said they are afraid that if they don't keep a close watch company officials will simply declare their loved ones lost for good.

"I'm going to be here until they pull him out," said Saucedo, 24, whose 27-year-old husband, Jesus Alberto de Leon, left behind three children, ages 1, 5 and 8. "We'll see if tomorrow they go back in. We are going to wait here, because, if not, they will close the mine."

Some 600 relatives lived in a tent city outside the mine, braving bitterly cold nights until Friday, when officials suspended a 6-day-old search because the air inside the mine was too toxic to breath.

The temporary stoppage prompted many relatives to head home. Still more left after Grupo Mexico subsidiary Industrial Minera Mexico said Saturday that there was no way any of the miners were still alive.

Volunteers from religious groups who had handed out food to relatives all week offered only bread and coffee to the few left Sunday. Others helped take down abandoned tents and clean up trash left behind.

Authorities at every level of government have promised a full investigation of what went on in the minutes before the explosion. Pasta de Conchos had passed recent government inspections.

Twelve miners working near the entrance of the mine were rescued after the pre-dawn explosion and treated for burns and broken bones. Grupo Mexico said Sunday the survivors will receive $9,500 in compensation, while relatives of those killed will get $75,000.

The federal government has also promised to give each family that lost a miner a house and scholarships so that their children can go to college.

Cantu, whose son had children ages 14, 13 and 6, said monetary compensation won't make the pain go away — but will help families as they struggle to move on.

"Even if they give me everything in the world, that won't bring my son back," she said. "But my grandchildren, my daughter-in-law, they need help."

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
 
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