Rescue teams resigned themselves on Tuesday to pulling only corpses out of a coal mine where 103 workers remain trapped, as Chinese media demanded investment to mechanise the industry and improve safety.
So far 63 bodies have been hauled from Chenjiashan mine in Tongchuan city following the disaster on Sunday, Xinhua news agency said, citing Shaanxi provincial mining industry administration director Huo Shichang.
Another 103 miners are trapped underground and presumed dead after one of the worst mining accidents in China for more than a decade.
Investigators have determined that a back-to-back gas blast and coal-dust explosion knocked out all ventilation systems in the pit, making survival for those missing all but impossible, the China Daily said.
”The possibility of survival is virtually non-existent but the rescue program is still going. We will not give up hope,” a Shaanxi coal mine safety bureau official surnamed Chen said.
Rescue efforts continued to be hampered by dangerous gas levels in the mine even though the main ventilation system had been repaired.
Rescuers returning from the tunnels said they had seen light-blue smoke underground, which experts said signalled that the coal bed could be on fire.
”In some places underground the density of gas is still very high so the rescuers simply can’t reach many people trapped,” said Chen. ”Until they ventilate those areas, they can’t get to them. We are trying our best.”
A total of 293 workers were underground at the mine when the accident happened. About 127 miners escaped. Xinhua said 43 suffered serious burns but most were out of danger.
More than 7 000 workers are killed each year in China’s coal mines, considered the world’s most dangerous, and on Tuesday state-run newspapers called for more investment to improve safety.
Most of China’s pits still rely on manual labour to hack away at the coal face, resulting in output of just one ton of coal per miner per day.
The figure is 40 tons in the United States, where mines are mechanised.
”Mechanised production in coal mines can cut down the number of miners who have to work at the dangerous coalface,” said the China Daily in an editorial.
”In this way the casualty of mine accidents will be decreased. What is the price of a life, or a dozen, or a score — a
hundred? Compare these awful figures with the misery they bring and heavy investment is worthy.
”Life is more precious than money and the energy it buys,” said the newspaper.
The Beijing Youth Daily also called for changes in the industry, where accidents, many through negligence, are commonplace.
Families, miners and officials dealing with the aftermath of the Chenjiashan tragedy have directed their anger at the mine’s management for neglecting safety in the drive for profits.
Yan Mangxue, communist party secretary for Yaoyu village where 14 of the trapped miners are from, said the cause could be directly attributed to negligence and greed.
Citing preliminary findings of the investigation led by China’s Cabinet, the State Council, he said a blaze broke out in the mine on November 19.
While it was put out, a few days later on November 23 the gas density in the shafts still exceeded the limit considered safe.
”Under those conditions, the management should have immediately discontinued production but they didn’t, which directly resulted in the explosion on Sunday,” Yan said.
”If they had stopped production and ventilated the shaft to reduce the gas density, the explosion on Sunday wouldn’t have happened.” – Sapa-AFP