Negligence leaves miners wide open to disaster: Miners

Rescue efforts continue at coal mine where 18 miners were trapped following the flash flood inside as their co-workers desperately waits for good news

The huge amount of water, accumulated in two galleries, flooded the disaster-hit gallery due to a lack of mine safety and uncontrolled mining activities, claimed miners, retired from the coal mine.

“There was excessive mining activity every day more than the previous day through the mine shafts leading to the other galleries, which accumulated water from the disaster-hit gallery. Walls of the collapsed gallery could not withstand the heaviness of the water increased in the galleries on both sides of it,” said a retired worker who refused to be named.

“The other two galleries surrounding the disaster site hosted a huge amount of water, which is enough to fill a dam reservoir."

The Numune coal mine and the Özbey coal mine surrounding the mine operated by Has Şekerler, do not run currently. They have been inactive for nearly a decade.

Another miner suggested that negligence seems to be at the root of the incident. “A leak through a crack onto the wall possibly turned into a big hole enabling the course of the water to flow into the area where the men have been trapped inside Once, we made a mud patch onto the wall to prevent water from leaking through a crack onto the wall even though we were supposed to cement it. But, that’s what the engineer told us to do,” said the miner, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Drilling is performed to determine how many meters will be dug in which gallery. The company did not perform a drilling to find out where the water is accumulated in the field. We actually consider the length of water underground during the digging activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of rescuers have been still trying to pump out water, but water levels had been higher than the area where the 18 men had been trapped five days ago, possibly due to a broken pipe in the mine in Karaman, the south of Turkey. Rescue teams had to stop pumping efforts in the flooded mine in the town of Ermenek following a landslide early on Thursday.

Speaking on the disaster-hit area, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız refuted the claim which said that rescuers found three of 18 miners, who have been trapped inside after the coal mine was collapsed when it was inundated.

Yıldız was before the reporters after his inspectations along with Transportation Minister Lütfi Elvan and Labor Minister Faruk Çelik.

“We have not reached any worker yet. We will let you know when we find them,” he said. "It is not true to put forward a claim about where the miners could have been without noticing the scene behind the water."

RESCUE EFFORTS COULD TAKE MONTHS

An academic from the Çanakkale 18 Mart University said that the efforts aiming to find miners, trapped following the flood in the gallery, could take at least six months, because dust and mud, produced in activity points, turned into clay when they sucked underground water.

“The clay will remain there although the water is pumped out. The water has seriously damaged the fortification of the mine. A period of 6 months could be needed to reach the miners, maybe longer than six months,” he said.

Five days after the mine was inundated, no workers have yet been saved. Family members of them continued to wait desperately for good news outside the mine while hopes were fading that miners, trapped approximately 350 meters below ground, would be rescued.

#energy minister

#mine

#coal

#miner

#Çanakkale

#Karaman

#clay

#mud

#dust

#mine shaft

#water leak

#negligence