Fire and explosion

Citation

(2007), "Fire and explosion", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2007.07316eac.004

Fire and explosion

19 February 2006Coalmine, Coahuila State, Mexico

An explosion in a coalmine in Northern Mexico trapped 66 people underground and injured seven others, rescue workers said today. Civil protection staff were working to free those trapped in the mine, located in the state of Coahuila, which borders Texas in the USA. “The information that we have is that 66 people are trapped and seven others, who were outside the mine but affected by the explosion, are injured”, said Miguel Angel Beltran, of the Civil Protection agency in Saltillo, capital of Coahuila state. Local media said the explosion occurred in the early hours of the morning and was caused by gases that ignited.

20 February 2006

Rescue workers today dug frantically to reach 65 miners trapped in tunnels underground after an explosion at a Mexican coalmine but there was little hope of finding them alive. Soldiers and civil protection workers had not yet been able to make contact with the miners and, one day after the gas explosion in a remote, semi-desert region, the workers’ six-hour oxygen tanks had almost certainly run out. Scores of anxious relatives waited for news overnight outside the mine in the state of Coahuila, which borders Texas. Soldiers stood at the gates of the mine at the town of San Juan de Sabinas, stopping family members from going inside. “There is an explosive mix of methane gas and it is very dangerous”, said Sergio Robles, head of Coahuila’s civil protection agency, speaking about rescue conditions underground. “We hold out hope but we have to be realistic”, Robles said. “With the atmosphere and the risks and with time passing, everything is running against us”. Robles said rescuers were working around the clock in shifts but it was not clear how near they were to the miners. Ventilators were pumping out gas but the miners’ oxygen tanks had now surely been used up, he said. The explosion occurred in the early hours of Sunday. Coahuila Red Cross spokesman Sergio Guajardo said the miners were stuck two miles underground. The miners’ union said the men were trapped only 500 yards below ground, but a further 1.25 miles along tunnels. The mine is owned by Grupo Mexico, the world’s number three copper miner, which also works other mineral deposits. Seven miners who were working closer to the surface were rescued after the explosion. They were taken to a hospital with first- and second-degree burns

20 February 2006

Chances of survival dimmed today for 65 Mexican miners trapped underground by a blast at a coalmine, where emergency workers wielding only picks and shovels struggled to dig through to the men. A rescue team got within 110 yards of where two men had been working on a conveyor belt when the gas explosion occurred Sunday (February 19) but poor ventilation and the risk of rock falls hampered efforts to save them. Rescuers were using only hand tools for fear of sparking another blast. The rest of the men were thought to be in groups up to 1.25 miles into the mine, near the town of San Juan de Sabinas, 60 miles Southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. Robles said no contact had been made with any of the miners but there were unconfirmed rumours that rescuers had heard knocking in the mine. Explosive methane gas underground made the rescue dangerous and one worker said it could take days to reach most of the trapped. Forty hours after the explosion, the miners’ six-hour oxygen tanks had almost certainly run out, but mine operators said air pockets might still keep the men alive. “There is always hope”, said Juan Rebolledo of Grupo Mexico. “Because we really don’t know what conditions they are in, there could be pockets of air down there”, he said.

21 February 2006

Frantic efforts to rescue 65 Mexican miners trapped in deep coal shafts for two days dragged on today. About 60 rescue workers, mainly local miners, were digging with picks and shovels at the Pasta de Conchos mine in the Northern state of Coahuila to reach the men. “The work is going on in very difficult conditions. Unfortunately, the situation is grave”, said Oscar Pimentel, a top official from the state government of Coahuila. He said that there was a chance the miners were alive if ventilators were working but that there had been no contact with any of the missing men since a gas explosion collapsed hundreds of yards of tunnels early on Sunday (February 19). The rescuers used hand tools to avoid sparking a new blast in the mine, near the town of San Juan de Sabinas.

22 February 2006

Angry relatives of 65 workers trapped inside a Mexican coalmine accused the company of negligence today as rescuers inched slowly toward the men, hoping they were still alive. Making agonizingly slow progress, rescue teams were nearing the spot where two of the trapped miners had been when a gas explosion ripped through the mine and collapsed tunnels early on Sunday (February 19). “They are advancing, we think we are about 10 to 15 metres away”, said Antonio Rodriguez, a miner helping with the digging. “It’s possible they will make it tonight”, he said after emerging from the pit. Labour Minister Francisco Salazar said that rescuers hoped to reach the two trapped men within hours and that they would then have a better idea of whether the others were still alive. “Once we find people, we’ll know two key things: The impact and the size of the explosion and the amount of oxygen in the air that they had to breathe, to see what chance we have of getting out those that are much deeper in the mine”, he said. There has been no contact with the trapped miners since the explosion and they only had six hours’ worth of oxygen in their tanks. However, rescue teams believe they could still be alive if they are near an air pocket or if ventilation units are still pushing air into areas where they are trapped. At the gates of the Pasta de Conchos mine in the Northern state of Coahuila, families accused mine owners and even union leaders of ignoring repeated safety warnings. The mine is owned by Grupo Mexico, which has denied union charges of negligence and insists it is doing everything possible to rescue the men. A team of US experts arrived today to provide technical help.

23 February 2006

The chances of rescuers finding survivors among 65 Mexican miners trapped by a gas explosion in a coalmine dimmed today as emergency teams found scenes of devastation from the blast. The explosion, at the Pasta de Conchos mine in the Northern state of Coahuila on Sunday (February 19), dislodged huge piles of rocks inside the mine, which slowed miners trying to dig through to their missing colleagues. “They are so big that it shows the force of the blast was tremendous”, said Ruben Escudero, manager of the mine at the town of San Juan de Sabinas. Rubble weighing some 70 tonnes sat in a tunnel where two miners were believed to have been working when the methane gas erupted, said Xavier Garcia, head of Mexican mining operations at mine owner Grupo Mexico. Men digging with spades and even their bare hands found no sign of the pair. “We were surprised. The explosion was much bigger than we had imagined”, said Garcia. Rescuers were still about 765 yards from where most of the miners were believed to be. They were in an area that still had breathable air but the level of methane gas was increasing as they dug. Since the accident, there has been no contact with the missing miners, who only had six hours’ worth of oxygen with them. A US team of experts, some from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, was planning to lower equipment down a hole to the bottom of the mine to test whether oxygen levels were high enough for someone to survive.

23 February 2006

As many as 25 men trapped in a Mexican coal mine after a huge explosion five days ago were believed to be dead today as hope dimmed of finding any of the 65 missing miners alive. While no bodies were found, air tests in a section of the Pasta de Conchos mine where men were thought to have been working showed there was not enough oxygen to sustain life, a spokesperson for mine owners Grupo Mexico said. Labour Minister Francisco Salazar said there may have been up to 25 miners in that area but it was impossible to be sure. “If these 15 to 25 people were in this place, obviously there would be no life”, Salazar told relatives and journalists outside the mine in San Juan de Sabinas in Northern Mexico. Asked whether the workers might have left the section which was tested, Salazar said: “That possibility may exist”. Five more holes would be drilled in places where miners were thought to be trapped so that the air could be tested there, the minister said.

25 February 2006

The 65 men trapped by a Mexican coal mine explosion six days ago cannot possibly have survived their ordeal underground and are all dead, mine owners said today. The Grupo Mexico company said that while no bodies had yet been found, tests showed there was almost no oxygen inside the mine’s shafts and tunnels and no hope of finding survivors from the explosion last Sunday (February 19). “We are moving on to the hard task of the physical recovery of our miners so the families can start their mourning”, said Xavier Garcia, a senior executive at Grupo Mexico. The pre-dawn explosion of methane gas and coal dust tore throughout the Pasta de Conchos mine in Mexico’s Northern state of Coahuila, trapping the 65 night shift workers, some of them almost 1.5 miles underground. The blast sent temperatures soaring above 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit and filled mine shafts and tunnels with methane and carbon monoxide as well as collapsed rock. “These conditions made survival impossible”, said Garcia. Rescue teams spent several days digging around the clock at huge piles of rock and dirt, hoping to find a way through to the trapped men. They pulled out hundreds of tonnes of rubble but the search was suspended last night because high levels of methane gas threatened a new explosion. No contact was made all week with any of the missing men, who were stranded with only a few hours’ worth of oxygen in their gas tanks and little or no food and water. Their only chance of survival had been if they were close to a large pocket of clean air or if ventilator shafts were pushing enough clean air into their area of the mine. A team of US experts helped carry out the tests that demonstrated the quality of air was so bad throughout the mine that no one could have survived. Grupo Mexico has said it will pay compensation of about $70,000 for each of the men killed and almost $10,000 for each of the 13 men who were injured in the blast but not trapped. Efforts to recover the bodies will begin as soon as experts clear the mine of the lethal levels of methane gas, most likely in the next two or three days. Officials were, however, reluctant to promise they would be able to find all the dead. Labour Minister Francisco Salazar said an investigation was under way and that Grupo Mexico would face sanctions if it was found to be responsible for the disaster.

28 February 2006

Workers at Grupo Mexico SA, citing the blast that killed 65 miners on February 19, went on strike at Mexico’s two-largest copper mines and processing plants, demanding the company improve safety and maintenance. About 4,000 workers went on strike today at sections of the company’s Cananea and La Caridad mines, the Nacozari copper smelter and the San Luis Potosi zinc refinery, union spokeswoman Consuelo Aguilar said. “The company has failed to comply with health and education benefits”, Aguilar said. “They don’t meet requirements for maintenance, which is a danger for the workers”. Workers are demanding that Grupo Mexico, the world’s fourth-largest copper producer, invest more in spare parts and machinery to prevent another disaster, Aguilar said, adding that the union is seeking other fringe benefits. Grupo Mexico is ready to resume talks on benefits, spokesman Juan Rebolledo said. The company and union officials revised maintenance procedures this month, he said. He was unable to say how much output was affected by the strike.

21 February 2006Hospital, Liaoyuan, China

Chinese police have charged four people with selling low-quality electrical cables that sparked a fire in a hospital in December which killed 39 people, state media said. Patients were forced to jump out of windows to escape the blaze at City Central Hospital in Liaoyuan city in Northeast Jilin province, Xinhua news agency said. The owner of the store which sold the cables to the hospital, two company managers and another man involved in the sale were among 11 people detained in connection with the fire, the agency said in an overnight report. The hospital’s president and vice director have also been detained.

24 February 2006Coalmine, Shandong Province, China

A coalmine explosion in Eastern China killed 15 miners and injured 12 others, the official Xinhua News Agency said today. The blast occurred yesterday at a colliery belonging to the Zaozhuang Mining Group Co. in China’s Eastern Shandong province, Xinhua said. It said 27 people were underground when the explosion occurred. The injured had been taken to hospitals for treatment and an investigation was under way, it said.

27 February 2006

Rescuers today retrieved the bodies of nine miners who were missing after a coal mine gas blow-out accident in Central China’s Hunan Province, but the whereabouts of nine others remained unknown. As of 0930 hrs today, rescue operations were still ongoing, despite the chances of the missing miners being found alive being rated as slim, as the mine was full of methane gas, local government officials said. The gas blow-out accident occurred around 1700 hrs on Saturday (February 25) at Dayuan Coal Mine in Longhui County of Shaoyang City, when 24 miners were working underground in the shaft. Only six miners managed to escape. The preliminary investigation showed that the accident was due to violations of mining operation rules. Officials from the State Administration of Work Safety arrived at the accident site yesterday to further investigate the cause of the gas blow-out.

7 March 2006Coalmine, Quang Ninh, Vietnam

An underground explosion killed eight Vietnamese coal miners in the Northern province of Quang Ninh, state media reported today. The bodies of the eight, all men aged between 21 and 30, were recovered immediately after the accident early on Monday, the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper said. State media quoted industry officials as saying methane gas was believed to have triggered the explosion.

9 March 2006Hunan Province, China

A coalmine explosion and fire today in Central China killed three miners and left six others missing, the government said. Two miners escaped and another was rescued at the Shuijingtou Coal Mine in Hunan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The cause of the blast is being investigated, the agency said. The blaze hampered rescue efforts and rescuers were still searching for the six missing miners hours after the blast, it said. China’s coalmines are notorious for their lax safety records and claim about 6,000 lives each year in fires, explosions, floods and other disasters. The blast and fire today occurred in Shaodong County, about 125 miles from Hunan’s provincial capital, Changsha, Xinhua reported. It said the Shuijingtou Coal Mine belongs to the state-owned Lianshao Mining Group Co. Ltd.

30 March 2006Flooding in coalmine, Shanxi Province, China

The death toll rose to 26 at the flooded Fanjiashan coalmine in North China’s Shanxi Province, with two more still missing yesterday. An official in charge of the rescue and search operation said there was little possibility for the missing miners to return alive, but the rescue efforts would continue. Fifty-eight miners were working underground, only 30 managed to escape. The families of the dead will each get 200,000 yuan in compensation, a local government official said.

10 April 2006Premises, Meerut, India

Police said at least 45 people were killed today when a huge fire broke out at a crowded consumer electronics fair in the Northern Indian city of Meerut, but one official said the toll could be twice as high. “There are 45 to 50 bodies in the mortuary”, Police Inspector-General N.B. Singh told Reuters. A local administrative officer in Meerut said around 100 people were feared dead. “There were around 1,000 people inside the enclosure”, he told Reuters. “There are bodies still in the ruins”. One police officer said many people had found it difficult to escape from the long tent where the exhibition was being held. “The tent was very long, extending for more than 100 metres and there was only one exit corridor, so people could only come out one by one”, said a police official at the control room in Meerut, 80 km northeast of New Delhi. Officials said it was too early to say what caused the fire, which witnesses said broke out at around 1615 hrs local time. Around 60 people were taken to one hospital, some with very serious burns, a witness at the hospital said.

11 April 2006Hospital, Shanxi Province, China

The death toll from an explosion at a hospital complex in Northern China rose to at least 33 today amid reports that explosives stored in a garage may have caused the tragedy. Rescuers found a total of 33 bodies amid rubble after the Monday morning (April 10) blast at the Xuangang Coal Power Company’s staff hospital in Shanxi province, China Central Television (CCTV) reported in its evening news. The first report of the blast, which emerged on Monday afternoon, said 15 were killed. Various state-run media reports said that between 40 and 200 people were injured in the explosion, some of whom were nearby villagers whose houses have been damaged. The powerful explosion, which occurred in a garage in a building in the hospital complex, flattened that building and six other houses nearby, the CCTV report said. It caused damage within one square kilometre of the blast site, with one end of a five-storey residential building for hospital staff completely destroyed. The blast site was less than 500 metres from the main building and the patients have since been moved to other local hospitals. Some of the windows of the main hospital building, which can accommodate 300 patients, were smashed. The cause of the blast remained unknown, according to police. But official press reports said investigators were looking into the possibility that explosives stored at the site were responsible.