Coal mine explosion kills 19 miners in Bursa

The bodies of seven miners have so far been retrieved from the mine, Dinçer said, noting that he hopes the remaining bodies will be removed from the mine before midnight. Hamza Başkurt, one of the rescue workers, said they saw bodies in the rubble but could not take them out. “It was a big explosion; this is obvious from their faces, hands and clothes,” Başkurt, appearing exhausted and with coal dust on his face, told NTV television. Mothers and wives of the miners wept near the entrance to the mine.

Gendarmes cordoned off the area and tried to calm the relatives of the missing miners. The rescue work was complicated by the high concentration of flammable gas inside the mine. Rescuers initially pumped air into the mine to try to dispel the gas as they waited for experienced miners with adequate equipment from other cities to arrive by road. Heavy fog prevented their transportation by helicopter.

Dinçer said the mine was last inspected in May and has been regularly inspected. The mine has been operating since 1983. He said reports on the explosion would be completed only after experts study the mine.

Four workers who were outside the chamber at the time of the blast survived the accident, Dinçer said.

It was not clear if there were any survivors other than the four injured workers who have already been discharged from the hospital; however, rescue workers did not have high hopes.

Labor Minister Ömer Dinçer rushed to the site of a mine explosion in Bursa that killed 19 workers Thursday night. Four workers who were outside the chamber at the time of the blast survived the accident.

Dinçer said the explosion caused the mine to cave in at a depth of around 220-250 meters. Safety violations and outdated equipment have been factors in past mine accidents in Turkey. Seventeen miners were killed in a methane gas explosion at a coal mine in western Balıkesir province three years ago. In Turkey’s worst mining disaster, a gas explosion killed 270 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak in 1992.

Rescue efforts

Rescue teams from a group called the GLI, which operates mines in Kütahya, and experts from the Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TTK) arrived in Bursa hours after the incident via helicopter. Teams from the Turkish Red Crescent also arrived in the Mustafakemalpaşa district of Bursa, where the mine, owned by Dük Mining, is located.

Speaking to journalists yesterday, Bursa Governor Şahabettin Harput said that in addition to GLI and TTK experts, civilian defense teams and other search and rescue teams had arrived in the area. “We also called for support teams from Tunçbilek and Zonguldak [mining areas]. They are on their way. We haven’t yet reached the inside of the mine. The mine is too deep; there is still gas in there. They are proceeding slowly and with caution. We are trying to remain optimistic,” he said.

Mustafakemalpaşa Deputy Mayor Ayhan Dadak said the municipality had directed fire teams to the area. He also said that four workers who were affected by the gas were taken to the Mustafakemalpaşa State Hospital, where they are undergoing treatment.

Bursa Fire Department Chief Orhan Doğan said his department sent a team of 21 firefighters, who are working together with civilian defense teams and search and rescue teams of AKUT, a civil society organization. “We must work slowly because of the compressed gas inside the mine. We can only carry out a rescue after pumping air into the mine,” Doğan said.

Birtan Onkardeşler, director of a mining company that operates in the Dursunbey district of Balıkesir, said he, along with three mining engineers and a group of 10 workers, rushed to the scene as soon as they heard about the explosion. Onkardeşler also stated that it was important to pump air into the mine to let the methane gas compressed in the mining out. “The real rescue efforts will start once the gas is completely let out. If we don’t do that, rescuers would risk gas poisoning.”

Many of the workers of the mine were also helping rescuers. Hüseyin Ayyıldız, who is responsible for transporting the mined coal to the company’s storage facilities, said: “As I drove away from the mine, I heard an explosion. My heart sank, but there was nothing I could do. I got down there. Some of my friends who were there survived, but many are down there where the explosion occurred. May God help them.”

Occupational accidents cost Turkey TL 4 billion per year

The explosion has sparked a debate over occupational accidents and precautions taken by companies and the state to prevent them.

Reports recently released by the Ministry of Labor indicate that 98 percent of occupational accidents could have been prevented if necessary precautions had been taken. The number of accidents ending in workers’ deaths is five times higher than figures for developed countries. Furthermore, the cost of occupational accidents is TL 4.1 billion per year. According to the figures, 3,018 occupational accidents were reported to the Ministry of Labor in the first six months of 2009. As a result of these accidents, 670 workers lost their lives and 1,727 were wounded. Thirty-seven companies were threatened with temporary closure due to their failure to prevent the accidents. Companies found responsible for accidents were subjected to pay fines totaling TL 1,476,623. The highest number of accidents occurred in the mining, construction and metals sectors.

Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş) President Mustafa Kutlu criticized the deaths of the workers in Bursa and called on Parliament to pass urgent legislation on occupational health and safety hazards. Noting that mining is the most hazardous sector when it comes to occupational accidents, he said many mines in Turkey continue operating under difficult conditions for workers without any inspections carried out by the state.

Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-İş) President Salim Uslu said negligence on the part of companies in terms of ensuring a safe work environment leads to the death of workers and said that if penalties do not push companies to improve conditions, occupational accidents will always be on the country’s agenda.