The official declaration came on Wednesday: there was no hope of
survival for any of the miners trapped underground by Sunday's
blast at the Chenjiashan Coalmine in northwest China's Shaanxi
Province.
Many of the hundreds of anxious family members who had been
waiting for days for news collapsed as they cried out their
grief.
For two days, 52-year-old Dong Linan kept himself busy
circulating through the crowd in hope of getting any information
about his 24-year-old son, who was trapped in the mine.
"Don't ask me anything. Nothing. I don't want to say anything,"
said Dong. "I just feel my heart totally empty."
His son recently brought home his first two months' wages from
the mine, 1,500 yuan (US$180). His father told him to save it so
that he could have enough money to get married.
Most of the miners were the sole breadwinners in families, many
supporting both their children and elderly parents, said one woman
at site.
Most of the trapped miners are locals, but others are from
neighboring Henan
Province.
Early Thursday morning, three more explosions took place in the
mine. There were no new casualties, although 61 recovery team
members were in the tunnels, according to the operations
headquarters.
The blasts, which were not entirely unexpected, took place at
3:25, 6:15 and 7:40 AM.
Experts said the Chenjiashan mine has a complex geological
structure with coal, oil and gas intergrowth, and high gas
density.
According to a survey made on Tuesday by recovery teams just 800
meters inside the mine, the gas density was 9 percent, very likely
to explode, and the density of carbon monoxide was a lethal 0.1
percent.
Wang Xianzheng, director of the National Production Safety
Supervision and Administration Bureau, said that recovery
operations were complicated by the high density of gas and fires in
the mine.
"Improving ventilation may reduce the gas density, but increase
the risk of fire; reducing ventilation may cut the risk of fire,
but increase the density of gas," he said.
Wang said they plan to close No. 415 work area, where Sunday's
blast took place, and fill it with water and nitrogen to put out
the fire there.
Prior to Thursday's explosions, a total of 35 bodies of the
trapped miners had been brought out of the mine.
Some 293 miners were working underground on November 28 when the
gas explosion occurred at coal pits 8,000 meters from the entrance.
Only 127 men working near the mine's mouth escaped, 43 of them
injured.
Meanwhile, Liang Jiakun, deputy director of the production
safety bureau, said on Wednesday at a two-day International
Symposium on Coal Bed Methane in China that the government has
already invested 5.3 billion yuan (US$610 million) over the past
three years to enhance coal mine safety, most of it used to improve
the release of dangerous methane gas.
The government has also implemented policies, including tax
reductions or duty exemptions, to encourage enterprises to control
gas discharge in the mines.
Nevertheless, said Liang, more than 40 percent of China's coal
mine accidents have been caused by methane gas.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily and China.org.cn
December 2, 2004)