Hopes turn to grief as 28 miners found dead after 4-day search

Officials announced that the bodies were found in two different locations deep inside the state-run Karadon mine. Energy Minister Taner Yıldız briefed reporters on the latest developments regarding the tragic incident. He said the initial findings suggested that the victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning several hours after the blast. Teams were still trying to reach the two other missing miners when Today's Zaman went to print. The identities of the still-missing men, who are also feared dead, remained unknown since four of the dead have not yet been identified.

    Labor Minister Ömer Dinçer stressed that rescue teams would continue to work until the two missing miners are found. “We never took a break because we have our people down there. We will work until we find them and bring them out,” he said. Thirty workers were buried 540 meters below ground after a huge methane gas explosion around 1:30 p.m. on Monday.

Intensive rescue efforts were immediately launched, but rescuers were unable to reach the trapped workers for almost three days because the high concentration of explosive gas prevented the rescue teams from using vehicles to remove debris. Work was also hampered by fallen rocks.

Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TTK) Director General Burhan İnan had said on Wednesday that the rescuers wouldn’t be able to reach the trapped miners for four more days but noted that they were trying to shorten that time. Yıldız, however, said yesterday that the teams were able to enter the mine from the main entrance after the elevator, which was broken by the impact of the explosion, was fixed and that this was why they were able to reach the victims earlier than expected.

The rescue teams, comprising 400 men, dug a passage early Tuesday but it collapsed and they were forced to approach the miners from a different route, more than 2,000 meters from the site of the explosion.

The victims’ families were devastated by the deaths of their loved ones. As their bodies were brought to Atatürk State Hospital in downtown Zonguldak, their family members wept, with some fainting from grief. They were treated at the same hospital. The cause of the explosion has yet to be determined, but an investigation will be launched after all those trapped have been brought out of the mine, Yıldız said. The Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) has started to conduct inspections in and around the destroyed mine following the developments on Thursday.

President Abdullah Gül on Wednesday ordered the State Audit Institution (DDK) to launch a comprehensive investigation into recent mine accidents that have resulted in high death tolls in the past six months.

According to the statistics of the TTK, to which the collapsed Karadon coal mines belongs, 2,687 people died in mine accidents between 1955 and 2009, while 326,321 others were injured in the same period. The Black Sea province of Zonguldak takes the lead in the number of such deadly accidents. In the past, workers at the TTK’s Kozlu, Armutçuk, Amasra, Karadon and Üzülmez mines in Zonguldak faced collapse, methane explosions and carbon monoxide and methane gas poisonings. The country’s worst mining disaster also took place in Zonguldak, when a gas explosion killed 270 miners in the Kozlu mine in 1992.

The intensity of similar accidents, however, has drawn particular attention in the last six months, during which two methane gas explosions in the Bursa and Balıkesir provinces claimed the lives of 32 workers. With the Karadon tragedy, the death toll rises to 60, while the two missing workers at the mine are also feared to further increase this number.

Following the rescuers’ discovery of the bodies inside the mine, a stream of messages of condolence began to flow in from across the country. The Social Security Institution (SGK) announced that the victims’ families would be supported financially through permanent monthly stipends, as they would have otherwise face difficulties earning a living after the loss of their loved ones. The families of those who were already eligible for retirement will also be entitled to pensions. The procedures, which normally take up to two months, are expected to be finalized in a few days following an order from the labor minister. The families of the victims will also be given a one-time payment of TL 10,000 to fulfill their urgent and immediate needs, Labor Minister Dinçer added.

At a joint press conference with his Kosovar counterpart in Ankara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed sadness over the deaths of the 28 miners in Zonguldak. “According to the first findings, they passed away because of carbon monoxide [poisoning]. God rest their souls. We offer our condolences to their families and to our entire nation,” he said. Erdoğan visited the mine to personally oversee developments in the rescue efforts on Wednesday. İstanbul Today’s Zaman with wires