RESCUE WORKERS in orange overalls brought stretcher after stretcher out of the flooded shaft of Wangjialing colliery in north China, carrying 115 workers who had survived more than a week in a flooded mine shaft.
The rescuers hailed the triumph of the human spirit. “It is miracle. It is worth all of our efforts without sleep for several days,” said Wei Fusheng, a white-haired, black-faced rescuer, before bursting into tears.
As the miners, wrapped in blankets, were carried out from the bowels of the earth, rescue workers, totalling almost 5,000, who had spent more than a week pumping water out of the flooded mine, applauded.
The disaster has been blamed on lax safety standards.
The first batch of nine rescued miners were able to give their names and where they came from and doctors said they were in remarkably good health considering their ordeal. They are suffering from low body temperature, dehydration and shock.
“It is a miracle in China’s mining rescue history,” said Luo Lin, head of the state administration of work safety, who was waiting at the pit entrance, while Shanxi Communist Party chief Zhang Baoshun said the rescue succeeded because of “scientific methods and technology”.
Averting a mining disaster is a considerable propaganda coup for the government. During their week underground, the miners were sent letters from the central leadership which said: “Dear fellow workers, the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the whole nation have been concerned for your safety all the time . . . All of us are very happy about the message of life you have conveyed, and are racing the clock and going all out to save you. You must have confidence and hold on to the last!”
Wangjialing is a very large mine, covering an area of around 180 square kilometres below two counties in the Yuncheng city area of Shanxi. The mine is believed to have more than 2.3 billion tonnes of coal reserves, and it was still being developed when the disaster happened. Once fully operational the mine is expected to produce six million tonnes of coal a year.