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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Kin of trapped miners: ‘They are all dead’
By Mia E. Abellana
CEBU CITY -- Efforts to dig through the rubble proved futile Monday as rescuers failed to get to the six miners trapped inside a coal tunnel in Sitio Maantod Canlawilao, Barangay Dumalan, Dalaguete, Cebu since Saturday night.
Officials believe that only a miracle could save the miners.
They said if the six were not scorched in the explosion, they would have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.
Miner George Dasean told reporters that he warned the workers of Adit 202 that he already smelled the gas, which he said is similar to the smell of bananas.
He warned one of the miners about this, but they ignored him.
Dasean said that aside from the smell, miners could always tell the level of methane gas concentration is already high because the light from their hardhats would show rainbow-colored smog.
However, safety engineer Isagani Baltazar, said methane gas is odorless and that the smell the miners described was that of sulfur.
“The explosion was powerful. They would not survive it even if the tunnel did not collapse,” Baltazar told Sun.Star Cebu.
Senior Inspector Claro Benatiro, Dalaguete police chief, said it is possible that the hammering and chiseling of the miners caused sparks and ignited the methane gas, resulting in the explosion at 7:10 p.m. last Saturday.
However, Department of Energy (DOE) 7 Director Antonio Labios said it might be difficult to trace the cause of the explosion because they have no witnesses.
Five inspectors from DOE were sent to the area, but Labios told Sun.Star Cebu Monday that they are prioritizing the rescue of the trapped miners.
He said rescue teams from the Philippine National Oil Corp. based in Tongonan, Leyte and Zamboanga were scheduled to arrive last night to help.
The Bureau of Fire Protection will also be sending rescuers.
The bodies of Boyet Heraldez, 25, of Inayagan, Naga, Cebu and Hermino Zuniega, 25, of Dumalan, Dalagaute that were near the entrance to the tunnel were retrieved last Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Social Welfare Office sent sacks of rice and canned goods to help to the families of the victims.
Documents for financial aid are also being prepared so Governor Gwendolyn Garcia can give P5,000 monetary assistance for each family when she returns from the Asean summit in Malaysia Wednesday.
Dalaguete Mayor Ronald Allan Cesante, for his part, said the Municipality will hand over Tuesday the monetary aid of P5,000 for each family.
He also said the president of the mining company will be coming over this week and he will discuss with him additional aid for the families, aside from paying for the burial expenses.
The Provincial Board on Monday approved that the committee on environment and natural resources will conduct a hearing on the accident to determine any liabilities.
The mining operations of Ibalong Resources, a Taiwanese-owned company, have been suspended.
In the meantime, the company has formed three teams of six to take turns digging the rubble at the southern tunnel to get to the six miners.
All other activities in the mine have been suspended until further notice.
An observer noted that the miners who are helping in the rescue efforts were ill-equipped.
They only relied on blowers for air and had no oxygen tanks when they entered the area of the blast, which is about 400 meters away from the tunnel’s entrance.
Rescuers believe that the trapped miners are some 70 meters south of where the blast occurred.
The miners’ relatives are praying for a miracle.
Thelma Villacis, 35, arrived Monday from Basay, Oriental Negros after learning that her husband Nelson was trapped inside.
Thelma said that she did not want to him to work in the mines, but he insisted.
Thelma is jobless and has six children.
She said that they last saw her husband in Oct. 16, when he left Basay after learning that the mining operations had resumed.
They were waiting for him to go home last Nov. 1, but Thelma said he did not arrive.
He wrote them though that he would be home the day after Christmas.
Narcisa Amat, whose husband Gregorio is still trapped in the tunnel, said she only learned of the incident Sunday morning, when she went looking for him when he failed to go home after his shift was supposed to end at midnight.
The family of Antonio Jose, who is also trapped inside the mine, informed her about what happened.
Miners lamented that the tunnel had no exhaust and that there was nowhere for the air to go through.
Baltazar said the ventilation adit was still being constructed because the old ventilation shaft was closed after it caught fire.
Ibalong Resources had a methanometer, which is used to determine the level of concentration of methane in the area.
However, the mine’s device was unreliable because this was already old and was sometimes inaccurate.
A newer digital device, Baltazar said, automatically sounds an alarm whenever the methane gas level is above normal.
He said that the Department of Energy only allows less than two percent of methane gas underground and all miners are ordered to get out if the methanometer indicates that the level is higher.
They also go out when they notice small particles of soil falling from the ceiling of the tunnel.
For the eight miners working in the tunnel last Saturday night, time ran out before they could get out. (Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(December 13, 2005 issue)
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