Rescue work, body retrieval continue at Gloria mine
Team builds ‘ventilation walls’ to reach bodies
RESCUE and body retrieval operations were still under way at Gloria coal mine near Middelburg in Mpumalanga yesterday.
Rescue workers were still trying to reach the underground area where people believed to be cable thieves and a number of bodies remain, said business rescue practitioners representative Mike Elliot.
“It’s a rescue and recovery mission and everything is going well,” said Elliot. “We are building up ventilation walls. We are trying to get enough fresh air so we can get to the bodies.
“A team of rescue workers who reported for duty (on Sunday night) is now out, and a fresh team is inside. We had some challenges but they were all sorted out.”
About 20 people were trapped underground at the mine two weeks ago following an explosion that occurred while they were allegedly stealing copper cables.
The bodies of five men were retrieved two weeks ago while a man was brought to the surface alive and taken to the hospital where he was later discharged.
On Thursday, rescue workers found seven more bodies underground but did not retrieve them because the methane gas levels had increased and prompted the second temporary suspension of rescue and retrieval operations, which resumed yesterday, said Elliot.
The situation was unusually quiet outside Gloria coal mine with no sign of family members of the deceased or of the people who are thought to be still trapped underground.
Disgruntled Gloria coal mine workers, who have been frequenting the mine in the past two weeks demanding to be paid their outstanding salaries, were also not present.
Emergency medical service vehicles and bakkies loaded with different types of equipment and machines were seen moving in and out of the mine premises.
A number of police officers were also visible at the entrance of the mine.
Meanwhile, rescuers recovered 24 bodies from a mine in Zimbabwe that was flooded after heavy rains, trapping dozens of subsistence miners underground.
Henrietta Rushwaya, leader of the country’s small-scale miners’ association, said that 23 of the bodies had been identified since the disaster last Tuesday near Kadoma.
Eight people were rescued from the flooded tunnels, and all but one have been discharged from a hospital after treatment.
The government is continuing its search, saying up to 70 gold miners may have been trapped after a dam wall collapsed and water rushed into nearby mining tunnels.
Illegal mining has become rampant in a country where many people are unemployed.