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Vol. 73/No. 47      December 7, 2009

 
More than 100 killed
in China mine blast
 
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
A powerful gas explosion at a coal mine in northeastern China killed at least 104 workers in the early morning hours of November 21. Another four were unaccounted for a day-and-a-half later, still trapped underground in the mine shaft, reported the Xinhua news agency.

Sixty miners were hospitalized for injuries ranging from carbon monoxide poisoning to burns, according to Chinese Central TV. Authorities said this was the worst mine disaster in the country in nearly two years.

The blast occurred at the large state-owned Xinxing Coal Mine in the city of Hegang in Heilongjiang Province near the border with Russia.

“The mine has too many mining platforms in operation and has sent too many workers down the pit to increase output,” Zhao Tiechui, deputy head of the government’s work safety agency, said after the disaster. The Xinxing mine, which has been operating since 1917, produces 12 million tons of coal a year.

At the time of the explosion 528 miners were working underground; about 420 of them managed to escape. “I passed out for a while. I found I was shrouded by heavy smoke when I regained consciousness,” Wang Xingang, 27, an injured miner who made it above ground, told Xinhua. “I groped my way out in the dark, and called for help.”

The explosion occurred during a five-day inspection of work safety conditions in Hegang, local media reported. Authorities said a gas leak occurred in one of the shafts, “but because of poor ventilation, gas poured into the main tunnel and triggered an explosion that shook 28 of the 30 mining platforms in operation,” reported CNN. Mine buildings above ground also collapsed.

Unsafe working conditions resulted in deaths of more than 3,200 coal miners in China in 2008. Coal accounts for about 80 percent of China’s electricity needs.  
 
 
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