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29 miners trapped in mining explosion in New Zealand

Candlelight

Candlelight

Admiral
Admiral
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4365223/Police-boss-We-will-bring-miners-home

Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall said this morning that 29 men were still in the mine after an explosion yesterday afternoon, not 27 as previously reported.
The youngest, a mine assistant, was 17 and the oldest 62. Sixteen were staff and 13 contractors. The majority were New Zealanders, but there were also Australians and Britons in the group.
Superintendent Gary Knowles, the Tasman Police District Commander who is leading the rescue effort, was determined the men would be rescued.
"This is a search and rescue operation and we're going to bring these guys home."
He said the "environment remained unstable" and he wasn't going to send anyone into the mine until they were sure it was stable.
Knowles said specialist gas testing equipment had been flown in from Australia this morning.
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Can't then those Chileans have all the mistresses.

Seriously I hope this ends well. Mining is what drives the economy on the west coast so something like this is a true disaster.
 
I think one of the major differences between this and the Chilean or the Beaconsfield mine rescues is that this is a coal mine in which an explosion occurred while the other two were gold mines that had collapses. I am not sure but that might make this rescue more difficult because of the buildup of gasses.

I truly hope that they are all OK and make it out.
 
Looks like the rescuers have been cleared to go in. Good luck to them. I hope all those guys will be saved.
 
The Chilean miners were 600m underground.

Due to the geography of this mine, they're actually trapped ~200m above the level of the entrance.
 
Thank you for posting Candlelight. God I've been so busy at work I've hardly had time to catch up with the details of this story. I feel a bit sick, honestly. I was born in Greymouth.

RJDiogenes said:
Looks like the rescuers have been cleared to go in. Good luck to them. I hope all those guys will be saved.
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Rescuers are ready. As it stands the picture is pretty grim.
 
Hoping for the best outcome. Prayers and good wishes to all involved.

(we need a "fingers crossed" Smiley)
 
It looks like the rescuers have been delayed until tomorrow morning, because the methane and CO2 levels are still too high to be safe. So the picture does seem grim. :(
 
I'm not hopeful about this one either. Judging by the size of the fireball that destroyed the vent shaft, there wouldn't be much oxygen left inside there...
 
I read that Russell Smith, one of the two miners who escaped, had actually missed the bus to work and had arrived an hour late. He has not long driven his loader into the mine when the explosion occurred. He says that because he wasn't as far up the explosion wasn't as bad for him. He was knocked unconscious but he was found by the other miner, Daniel Rockhouse, who dragged him about 300 meters and after he came to it took them about another hour to find their way out.

Daniel Rockhouse's brother is still in the mine.
 
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