Rescuers Bring Up All 72 Canadian Miners

[Judi Lynn]

Rescuers Bring Up All 72 Canadian Miners
By Associated Press
January 30, 2006, 12:21 PM EST

ESTERHAZY, Saskatchewan -- Rescuers retrieved all 72 central Canadian potash miners who were trapped underground by a fire and survived until Monday by using oxygen, food and water stored in subterranean emergency chambers.

The rescued miners were all in good health.

They were trapped early Sunday when a fire started in polyethylene piping more than a half-mile underground, filling the tunnels with toxic smoke and prompting the miners to take refuge in the sealed emergency rooms.

Thirty-two miners were brought to the surface at about 3:30 a.m., said Mosaic Co., which owns the mine. Another 35 emerged a few hours later, followed by the remaining five. No serious injuries were reported.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-canada-mine-fire,0,136086.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Warpy]

1. I knew these guys would survive. Canada cares about its citizens

and their mine safety regulations and equipment are incredibly impressive, with sealable vaults along every shaft and corridor, stocked with food, water, oxygen, and first aid supplies.

Remember when we used to have strong unions, and we led the world in this? I hate being so ashamed of what my country has become under the GOP and DLC Democrats.

[tatertop]

3. Good to know someone cares about miners

What a horrible and dangerous occupation

[slor]

5. Good to know someone cares about it's CITIZENS!

Hell, Cuba evacuated what, 1 million people before Katrina, or one of those hurricanes? The * is a blight on this country, period.

[GCP]

2. Good news!

I'm glad for them all and their families.
It's time our mines had stringent safety rules and procedures like they have up north. Notice it's an American company who owns the mine - they can knuckle under to providing safety to their miners when they're forced to by a government that cares.

[quiet.american]

4. Very good oberservation. n/t

[Tempest]

6. The Bush administration should be ashamed

Canada takes mining safety seriously, while Bush does everything to gut it.

[MissB]

7. Thank you Canada for showing how it is done.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. I resent your politicizing this good news!

ok, not really.

Fuck Bush!

[TheDebbieDee]

12. I second that motion! Buck Fush!

I mean Fuck Bush!

[yellowcanine]

9. West Virginians should ask why their national government doesn't care

about mine safety as much as the Canadian government obviously does.

[iverglas]

10. when asked for comment on / comparison with the W Va situation

on television news this morning, the company rep giving a press conference declined. He explained that the two types of mining operations are completely different and it would be inappropriate to compare the two events.

(Also, funny to hear Saskatchewan described as "central Canada", which no Canadian would ever do; "central Canada" is Ontario/Quebec. And btw, Canada cares about more than just its citizens; there's a reasonable chance that there were non-citizens among the workers -- we don't tend to use the archaic "citizens" to describe members of the public/society.)

There are coal mining operations in eastern Canada, and there have been disasters aplenty. The 1958 Sprinhill disaster, for instance.

But more recently, the 1992 Westray atrocity. The owners escaped prosecution because of the delay in bringing charges.

http://people.stu.ca/~mccormic/westray1.htm

At 5.20 in the morning on May 9, 1992, a miner working in the Southwest section of the Westray mine was using a continuous miner to cut coal. As he cut into the coalface, the picks on the cutting head struck some pyrite embedded there, causing a shower of sparks. He had seen the sparks before, but this time they ignited some methane gas seeping from the coal seam. He jumped down off the miner, terrified at what he saw as he tried to put on his survival equipment. In moments he was dead.

... This explosion then moved rapidly through the entire mine, causing death and devastation in a matter of a few seconds. Those miners not crushed in the shockwave were overcome and died almost immediately of carbon monoxide poisoning as the intense methane fire consumed all the oxygen.

The rescue teams who went into the mine in the days following the explosion had to wear personal life-support equipment. Any hope they had of finding their comrades alive was gone as they surveyed the terrifying conditions. ...

... The devastation was rampant, as were signs of impending danger.
Roof supports had fallen. Heavy steel doors had been blown open. Equipment lay twisted in the roadways. The poisonous air was unbreathable. The ground surrounding the mine openings was grinding and cracking.

No one was found alive.

26 people died.

http://www.cupe.ca/www/News/446 (press release)

OTTAWA - The Canadian Union of Public Employees, the country's largest union with 460,000 members, has written to Premier Russell MacLellan demanding a public inquiry into the Nova Scotia government's refusal to prosecute top managers of the Westray Mine.

... Lambert said all workers across Canada are now threatened. "This astounding decision sends a powerful signal to corporate Canada that they are not answerable to the laws of Canada - laws that govern how citizens should act in a civilized society. If 26 men can be killed in such grossly negligent circumstances, without any accountability, then it is clearly open season on workers everywhere."

Lambert said the actions of the Nova Scotia government dramatically illustrate the need for the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to create a new section dealing with "corporate killing".

"Judge Richard recognized such a need in Recommendation 73 of his Westray Inquiry Report. The Nova Scotia government has supposedly accepted every recommendation in this report. If they are serious, they should be lobbying the federal government to change the Criminal Code."

We aren't really a workers' paradise up here, and we sure ain't perfect.



"Judge Richard recognized such a need in Recommendation 73 of his Westray Inquiry Report. The Nova Scotia government has supposedly accepted every recommendation in this report. If they are serious, they should be lobbying the federal government to change the Criminal Code."

[MichiganVote]

11. So, according to Pat Robertson reason, God likes Canadians better?