New Zealand mine disaster is nation's worst in nearly 100 years

New Zealand mine disaster is nation's worst in nearly 100 years

2010-11-24 14:42:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

GREYMOUTH, NEW ZEALAND (BNO NEWS) -- After five long days, officials in New Zealand on Wednesday said that a second explosion at the Pike River Coal Mine has ended all hopes of finding any survivors.

A group of thirty-one miners were inside Pike River on Friday afternoon when the first blast happened, trapping all but two miners inside. The two survivors escaped several hours later with minor to moderate injuries.

With all 29 miners now believed to have been killed, the accident is the nation's worst such disaster in nearly 100 years. Other mining disasters have happened more recently, but none were as deadly as the most recent one.

The previous most notable mining disaster in New Zealand happened on January 19, 1967 when a gas explosion killed 19 miners at the Strongman Mine near Greymouth. The mine has since been replaced by another mine.

And on September 24, 1939, eleven miners were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide at the Glen Afton mine in Huntly, a town on the North Island of New Zealand. On December 3, 1926, nine miners were killed when an explosion ripped through the Dobson mine in Dobson.

But a more deadlier accident happened on September 12, 1914 at Ralph's Mine in Huntly. About sixty people were working at the mine when an explosion happened, which was significantly less than the usual 250 miners who worked there.

It took about two weeks before all 43 bodies had been recovered from the mine, mostly because of dangerous gas inside. An investigation found that the blast was caused when the naked acetylene cap-lamp worn by a miner came into contact with the gas in the air.

It was also found that the coal dust in Ralph's Mine was extremely inflammable, and this meant that the force of the explosion through the tunnels was greater than would be expected.

Years earlier, on March 26, 1896, sixty-five miners were killed at the Brunner Mine near Brunner when an explosion rocked the mine. Some of the victims died as a result of the blast, while others died of the poisonous gases that followed. It was the worst mining disaster in New Zealand's history.

On February 21, 1879, thirty-four miners were killed at a mine in the town of Kaitangata - on the South Island - when candles caused an underground explosion.

But mining-related fatalities in New Zealand are low when compared to China, which has the worst safety record when it comes to mining. In 2009 alone, more than 2,600 miners were killed in accidents throughout the country.

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