Three explosions rocked the Chenjiashan coal mine in northern China on Thursday, but rescuers searching for the bodies of 166 workers killed in a weekend blast escaped unharmed, state media said.
The first blast ripped through the mine at 3.25am (7.25pm GMT on Wednesday) with another two following in the next four hours, highlighting the dangers facing rescue teams.
Sixty-one people were in the pit at the time looking for the bodies of 101 miners still missing after a massive gas explosion on Sunday, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The rescue team was lifted to safety soon after the first blast, which was not unexpected with dense gas still swirling through the tunnels and fires still burning.
”Because the gas density is so high, blasts can happen anytime,” said a Shaanxi coal mine safety bureau official, but declined to say if the rescue workers had been in a danger zone.
An expert quoted by the China Daily said the temperature at the site of Sunday’s explosion could be as high as 1 000 to 2 000C, suggesting that retrieving the bodies still missing would be difficult.
”Improving ventilation may reduce the gas density, but increase the risk of fire,” said Wang Xianzheng, director of the National Safe Production Supervision and Administration Bureau.
”While reducing ventilation may reduce cut the risk of fire, it may increase the density of gas.”
The next step was to fill the coal face where the explosion occurred with water and nitrogen to put out the fire there, he said.
A total of 293 workers were underground at the government-owned mine when the accident happened. About 127 escaped and the rest were confirmed dead on Wednesday.
Local officials and families have blamed the disaster on negligence and greed by managers of the state-owned mine. They say managers ignored dangerous gas levels detected several days earlier and insisted miners kept working.
Up to 800 relatives, colleagues and local residents protested outside the township government office on Wednesday. At least 40 of them stormed the four-storey building, smashing windows, breaking furniture and assaulting officials. – Sapa-AFP