RIP to the New Zealand miner's trapped/blown up at Pike's River.

Just a little homeage thread for the 29 miner's that have died at in a small mine on the west coast of the south island in New Zealand.

Pretty sad really, I don't know if any of you have been following this or not, but basically there was a relatively large explosion in the mine that closed it off with 29 workers inside. The cause of the explosion was because of natural gas leakages, what actually sparked and set the explosion off is not known yet.

The mine then filled with lethal gases. After about 5 days of surveying and discussion a rescue team was ready to go in, but not long before, there was another massive explosion, which was deemed un-survivable.
All 29 miner's are considered dead.

Here is a link to the full story if anyone is interested:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pike-river-mine-explosion/4381393/Pike-River-Our-darkest-hour

A pretty sad day in general for NZ.

RIP to those men that lost their lives, and my thoughts to the families and friends.

Peace

yeah bro sad stuff i live in chch

so much sorrow

Rest In Peace.
Last time I checked with it, their was only one explosion and they were still searching.
Looks like plans changed..
Damn..

That's one dangerous job.....

what a place to die

You wouldn't catch me underground - shit scares me.
Greenpleast - I see trouble in your country, what are the news outlets around you saying?

GreatwhiteNorth said:

You wouldn't catch me underground - shit scares me.
Greenpleast - I see trouble in your country, what are the news outlets around you saying?

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What do you mean man?? Trouble in my country with what?
I only have access to news from my country via family/friends and the site that I posted the link to. I read most day's.

Here is a link to the full coverage page if anyone is interested:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pike-river-mine-disaster

Nice Ol Bud said:

Rest In Peace.
Last time I checked with it, their was only one explosion and they were still searching.
Looks like plans changed..
Damn..

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Yeah man, the first blow closed the mine off.

They were preparing to send rescuers in on the day of the second explosion. A couple of hours before the scheduled rescue/recovery, a second, much larger explosion went off. Crazy. Poor guy's, I couldn't imagine dying in a more depressive place either.

They are now saying that it will be weeks before they manage to excavate the bodies, and aren't even guaranteeing a recovery. It's gotta be hard for the families..........

the shittiest part of all is miners don't get paid shit for the work they do. they risk their lives to bust their ass in pitch black filth with no air for 16 hours a day sometimes and most of them still can't afford to send their kids to college. pretty backwards. that really sucks.

i want to know how coms no one was bothered about these trapped miners yet look at the stuff the chilian miners got ??

moodster said:

i want to know how coms no one was bothered about these trapped miners yet look at the stuff the chilian miners got ??

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that's a pretty good point. i think the thing with the chilean miners was the fact that they were trapped alive for months and everyone had to go through each day not knowing if they would still be alive when rescued. the new zealand thing, while more tragic, is just not sensational enough for mainstream media i guess. they can't drag the story out for months and make shit tons of money off it.

moodster said:

i want to know how coms no one was bothered about these trapped miners yet look at the stuff the chilian miners got ??

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The circumstances were completely different.

The reason an explosion even occured in the first place was because of natural gas leaking out, I don't know if it was because they dug in the wrong place or what. Anyway, after the primary explosion, the mine was sealed shut. And after testing they realised the gases were still leaking out. So it was unsafe to get in, and the mine was full of lethal gas.

They were drilling the whole time to try and create extraction points for the gas to get out and fresh air to get in, but drilling is a lot more comlicated than it may seem, hard rock spots and what not. They needed special drill heads to get through the harder rock to not create sparks incase of triggering another explosion. They had problems from the outset with the drilling, plus they had to get down 150 something metre's. That's a lot of rock!

So yeah it was way more complicated than the chilean mine situation. Way more delicate, and fragil. But huge groups of people were working around the clock for 5 days straight trying to get these guy's out.

It was possible they they were already dead either from the first explosion, or the lethal gases that were filling the mine shafts. The second explosion kind of just sealed the deal. As it was more than twice the size of the first.

Noone was sent in because they would have been putting more lives at risk. With falmeable gas, how were they gong to get in? Without some form of explosion or excavation which would have caused the gas to combust?
It was a really tricky situation from what I could gather. That's why it is so sad.

RIP once again!

moodster said:

i want to know how coms no one was bothered about these trapped miners yet look at the stuff the chilian miners got ??

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Also, half of the world's capital's raised the flags to half mast only, out of respect for the miner's and their families. I thought that this was really cool. Many president's and country representatives sent their condolences. It's a tradgedy. I wish I could be home now! So much has been goin on there lately, earthquakes, this. And personal family things. Sucks to be away......

A quick update people:

A third explosion went off today, a much smaller one than the previous two, from what I could gather it wont impede the recovery efforts being made.
They managed to get a robot 1.5km into the main mine shaft, and I think a video will be put up. Honestly I'm not sure why they sent in a robot with such a limited distance range, they would have only been able to see 10% of the damn mine, seemed like a bit of a waste of time and money to me. But maybe that's why I'm not there on the rescue team.

Anyway here's the link:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4392230/Pike-River-disaster-another-explosion-at-mine

Peace!