Rescue too risky

TRAPPED: SURVIVORS DESCRIBE EVENTS BEFORE AND AFTER DEADLY METHANE MINE BLAST

Personnel can’t risk their lives without equipment to circulate air.

The tally of people trapped in a shaft in the abandoned Gloria mine in Mpumalanga has climbed to an estimated 26 people and there is little chance they will be rescued.

Some, who were initially part of the group of 42, all of whom were involved in a cable theft incident, disclosed the details of events in an interview.

After admitting to attempted theft, the group refused to divulge their personal details, but gave their account of the accident.

They entered Gloria Coal Mine on Monday evening to steal equipment. A subsequent methane explosion resulted in 22 members of the group being trapped underground.

Some of the survivors managed to retrieve two of those trapped, but after going back inside to help the others, another four to six people did not make it out. It is suspected they were suffocated by the leaking methane gas.

ANC ward councillor Andile Mazwane, who has been at the forefront of the rescue mission, said ambulances were dispatched to assist the two people who had been recovered. It is believed they were found unconscious.

While emergency personnel are on the scene, it is too risky for anyone to try and retrieve the trapped group without the power supply being restored.

To have the mine up and running again for the rescue would cost an estimated R340 million.

A group of mine employees said air circulation needed to be restored to make the shaft safe to enter. They did not think the emergency personnel would be willing to risk their own lives in the rescue bid.

“The mine won’t pay for the rescue operation, so who will?” said Mazwane.

He blamed the government for the incident, saying that if the mine had been operational the incident would never have happened. – Caxton News Service