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With Hope Dwindling, 115 Chinese Miners Are Saved
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A worker from the Wangjialing mine in northern China was taken to a hospital on Monday. The miner was among 115 rescued after being trapped since March 28. By SHARON LaFRANIERE Published: April 5, 2010
BEIJING — From the start, China’s latest coal mine disaster seemed likely to end as so many others had in a country where an average of seven miners die every day: a failed rescue effort, grieving relatives, few if any survivors.
But then, more than a week after the half-built Wangjialing mine in northern China was flooded with millions of gallons of water, rescuers heard taps on a metal pipe. They furiously pumped water out of the shaft and sent glucose injections down through a pipe. By late Monday, rescuers had dragged 115 men up to safety, though 38 others remained missing.
Survivors said they had strapped themselves to shaft walls with their belts so they would not drown, hung there for days, then jumped into a mine cart that floated by. Others said they ate bark from the pine pillars used to construct the mine. By any standard in the dangerous world of mining — and certainly by those of China’s especially deadly industry — it was a marvel of good fortune.
“These trapped people have made it through eight days and eight nights — this is the miracle of life,” said Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety. “Secondly, our rescue plan has been effective. This is a miracle in China’s search and rescue history.”
David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government, told The Associated Press, “This is probably one of the most amazing rescues in the history of mining anywhere.”
Investigators blamed the usual culprit in China’s regular mine accidents: a lack of safety precautions.
For days before the mine flooded, managers ignored water leaks that presaged trouble, according to preliminary findings by the State Administration of Work Safety. Miners had been ordered to step up the pace of construction to meet an October deadline to begin production at the mine, the agency said.
“The miners should never have been put in this situation in the first place,” Mr. Feickert said.
Had rescue efforts failed, the mine disaster would have been China’s deadliest in more than two years. Although the government has managed to significantly reduce the death rate at coal mines since 2002, its safety record remains among the world’s worst.
The accident occurred on March 28 as workers digging tunnels broke through a wall into an old shaft filled with water, flooding their V-shaped shaft. Five of the workers’ nine platforms were submerged. The exit out of the pit was blocked.
Of the 261 miners underground that day, 108 made it to safety. The rest were trapped and feared dead.
More than 3,000 workers participated in the rescue operation. At least half a dozen pumps were installed, draining the mine of more than 11 million gallons of water a day, officials said.
By Friday, the water level inside the mine had dropped nearly 11 feet. Workers had drilled a hole through the dirt and pumped oxygen to the area where they hoped to find survivors, according to news reports.
But there were no signs of life until rescuers heard the tapping on the pipe Friday afternoon.
Rescuers tapped and shouted into a pipe in response. They also sent down bags of glucose, milk, a pen, paper, a phone and a plastic bottle. And, requisite for a high-profile rescue effort that could have political consequences, they sent exhortations from both Communist Party and government leadership bodies.
“Dear fellow workers, the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the whole nation have been concerned for your safety,” one letter began.
It ended, “Hold on to the last.”
When rescuers pulled one pipe to the surface, they found an iron wire tied to the end, apparently a signal from survivors, according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency. Rescuers also spotted swaying lights at the opposite end of the shaft, another possible sign of life.
On Saturday afternoon, a team of divers was sent down. But the divers returned within a couple of hours, reporting that the black murky water made it hard to reach the workers’ platforms. On Sunday, as water levels continued to drop, rescuers in inflatable rafts paddled into the dark, watery pit, letting air out of the rafts when they got stuck in the narrow passages.
They found survivors that night, most of them stranded on a single platform.
One miner spotted a raft and called out, “Can you get me out of here?”
“Since we got in, we will definitely will be able to take you out of here,” a rescuer yelled back, The Associated Press reported.
The first nine survivors were carried out of the mine’s mouth very early Monday morning, seven and a half days after the accident, on a holiday called Tomb-Sweeping Day when Chinese commemorate the dead. Rescuers burst into tears and hugged one another in relief.
Thousands of people keeping vigil along the roadside cheered as ambulances raced the miners to the nearest hospital. The number saved grew throughout the day as hundreds of rescuers entered the mine.
CCTV, the state-run television network, showed rescuers clad in blue and orange jumpsuits carrying out stretchers laden with barefoot miners, wrapped in green blankets, eyes covered with towels to shield them from the light.
One reached out his blackened hands to grasp those of rescuers in thanks. Another was still gripping his miner’s lamp. A third showed rescuers a pocket full of sawdust, describing it as hard to chew.
The rescue team’s chief medical officer told reporters that the survivors were weak, severely dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia and skin infections. Some were in shock. Although none were in critical condition, he described 26 as more seriously ill than the rest.
“I have not slept for several days,” one rescuer, Wei Fusheng, told CCTV, weeping with joy. “Our efforts have not been in vain.”
Still, some relatives, carefully sequestered and kept under watch in nearby hotels, seemed destined for bad news.
As of Monday night, there was no word on the status of the 38 workers still trapped. Some rescued miners said they had seen bodies of dead co-workers, but how many workers might have died was unknown.
Jing Zhang contributed research. |
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发表于 2010-4-6 11:42
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发表于 2010-4-6 12:41
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