Coal Mine Gas Blast in NW China Blamed As Grave Accident of Responsibility

Coal mine gas blast in NW China blamed as grave accident of responsibility

FUKANG, Xinjiang, July 13 (Xinhua) — The coal mine gas blast killing at least 81 miners in Fukang, a city in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, early on Monday is blamed as a grave accident of responsibility.

The remark was made by Song Airong, vice chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Government and also deputy head of the leading group for investigation of the coal mine gas explosion, at a function organized here on Wednesday for the establishment of a new key task team for investigation of the coal mine catastrophe.

Li Yizhong, director of the General Administration of Work Safety, on Wednesday also declared the focus of the efforts to handle the July 11 coal mine gas blast aftermath would be shifted from on-the-spot rescue operation to investigation of the cause leading to the fatal gas blast.

The gas explosion took place around 2:30 a.m. Monday in Shenlong Coal Mine of Fukang County, 62 kilometers away from Urumqi, the regional capital, when 87 people were working underground. Only four of them survived the accident.

By 11 a.m. on Wednesday, rescuers found remains of 81 other miners killed in the gas blast, and are searching for the last two who are still missing. But the chance of their survival is very dim.

China’s work safety watchdog has blamed the coal mine blast for a number of safety loopholes, including overproduction, lack of a work safety license and ill-management.

The Shenlong Coal Mine, situated on the southern fringe of the Junggar Basin, is a joint-stock mining business founded in 2001, with a maximum verified production capacity of 90,000 tons a year. The coal mine reportedly turned out 180,000 tons of coal in the first half of the year alone.