Friday, 11 December 2009Nineteen miners were killed in Bursa after a methane gas explosion caused an undergr ound coalmine chamber to collapse. The mine is located in the town of Alpagut, in Bursa province. Turkish Labor and Social Security Minister Ömer Dinçer said the blast, which happened Thursday night, buried the workers nearly 220 meters below the surface. "We lost all 19 workers. The chamber was entirely collapsed," Dinçer said on Friday.
Three survivors have been rescued so far, but efforts to reach the trapped miners have been complicated by the high concentration of flammable gas inside the mine as well as the unstable ground around the mine. Air was first pumped into the mine in an attempt to dispel the gas. Rescuers had to remove debris themselves because the area surrounding the mineshaft was too soft for heavy machinery. They estimate that carefully re-erecting supports inside the mine, which is necessary before the bodies can be recovered, could take a whole day.
Dinçer said the mine was last inspected in May and had operated without such an accident since 1983. Past mine accidents in Turkey have been caused by safety violations and outdated equipment. The worst mining accident in Turkey’s history occurred in 1992, near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak, when a gas explosion killed 270 workers.
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Friday, 11 December 2009
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