Trapped Mexican miners in ‘extreme danger’
A gas explosion today in a northern Mexico coal mine trapped 66 miners below ground with a limited supply of oxygen, government and company officials said.
Another 12 miners were rescued and were being treated in a local hospital with burns and broken bones.
The trapped miners were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero Chavez, director of the Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, a private company that owns the pit.
The explosion occurred before dawn at the mine near the town of Sabinas, 135 kilometres (85 miles) southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas on the Mexico-US border, Escudero said.
The mine is about 300 meters (985 feet) below the ground, he said.
Daniel Romo, a spokesman for Coahuila state’s emergency services, said the injured miners were being treated for various degrees of burns and broken bones.
“Their lives are not in danger,” he said.
Romo said authorities did not know how long it would take to get to the miners who were trapped underground.
Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira Valdes arrived at the mine in the mid afternoon to supervise the rescue operation.
Mexican soldiers and state police also arrived at the scene to assist in the relief effort.
Last month, 14 miners died in two separate accidents at mines in West Virginia. Two men died in a fire Jan. 21 at a mine in Melville, nearly three weeks after 12 men died after an explosion near Tallmansville.
In Canada last month, 72 potash miners walked away from an underground fire and toxic smoke after being locked down overnight in airtight chambers packed with enough oxygen, food and water for several days.
