Miscellaneous

Citation

(1999), "Miscellaneous", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308dac.008

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

18 July 1998 - Lassing, Austria

Keywords: Mining industry, Accidents

Rescue workers all but abandoned hope today of saving the last of 11 men trapped deep underground after Austria's worst post-war mining disaster, and one official said the bodies might never be recovered. A crater some 100 metres across opened up last night in the Alpine village of Lassing, 200km south-west of Vienna, the visible sign of a cave-in which sent tonnes of mud and water crashing into the tunnels below. Ten members of a rescue team which had entered the mine in search of a 24-year-old miner trapped by an earlier landslide yesterday were believed to have been crushed or drowned. Rescue workers laboured into the night under floodlights using heavy drilling gear brought in from Germany in the faint hope that the miner, Georg Hainzl, might have survived in an air pocket. Hainzl had been caught below the surface of the magnesium silicate mine. But there was no chance that his would-be rescuers, some of whom had been working at depths of 130 metres would be found alive. Their number had originally been put at 11. Alfred Maier, head of mining safety at the Economics Ministry, said rescuers were trying to prevent further collapses by pumping out water and channelling away a local stream. "Our last hope is to try to stabilise the crater so that we can think of what to do next", he told a news conference. Two houses fell into the black soil and mud of the crater and part of a nearby road collapsed. Around 200 local people were evacuated and police kept onlookers well away from the crater, which continued to widen. The ten-man rescue team was working in various tunnels and shafts and some of them were in a lift when the second collapse occurred. Other rescue workers said the ground underneath the Lassing suburb was a maze of tunnels and shafts which had somehow become unstable. "There has been rain recently, but nothing out of the ordinary", said fireman Thomas Kettner. Mine manager Walter Engelhardt said the accident had been completely unexpected. Mine managers inspected the mine and declared it safe for the rescue team to enter.

21 July 1998 - Following a break because of fears of another collapse, recovery work resumed today at the mine where 11 miners died in Austria's worst post-war mining disaster, officials said. The head of the recovery operation in the mine in Lassing, 125 miles south-west of Vienna, resigned amid mounting criticism from news media that the effort was hampered by indecision and lack of co-ordination between rescue units. Drill and pump equipment as well as trucks were hastily withdrawn in the morning following word that the water table had dropped by up to 300 feet, some experts said 100 feet, in the ill-fated magnesium silicate mine. A press spokesman said recovery workers, having determined that the pit was stable enough, several hours later returned to a 330-foot diameter crater created when the mine caved in on Friday (17 July). "They have started drilling and pumping again in the evening", the spokesman said. Local fire brigade chief Horst Freiberger earlier said a vacuum created by the falling water table was pulling at tonnes of mud and debris that filled a maze of shafts and tunnels in the magnesium silicate mine on Friday. "Any moment the mud masses could fall further and create another cave-in", he said. Officials feared another collapse would widen the crater and pull more houses into the pit. Two houses and parts of a road were swallowed up by the crater when disaster struck. The cave-in killed ten men who had entered the pit in an attempt to rescue a colleague trapped by an initial collapse earlier on Friday. At the weekend, officials ruled out the possibility of finding any survivors. Wolfgang Wedrac, county mine safety director, stepped down as head of the recovery operation, citing "fatigue and exhaustion", the press spokesman said. Wedrac was replaced immediately by Alfred Maier, head of the mining safety unit at the Economics Ministry, who has been working at the disaster site for several days. The public prosecutor's office in Leoben, south of Lassing, has opened an investigation to determine whether the accident may have been caused by negligence.

24 July 1998 - Around 50 people were evacuated from their homes early today because of fears of another collapse at an Austrian mine where 11 men died, but were later allowed to return home, officials said. Noises and apparent movements underground during the night prompted the decision to evacuate the residents in the mining town of Lassing, 220km south-west of Vienna, scene of Austria's worst post-war mining accident last Friday. "The mine is fairly stable", Alfred Maier of the federal mining authority told a news conference after a day of measurements and observations by experts. Two houses and parts of a road were swallowed up by in a huge crater when disaster struck at the magnesium silicate mine. The cave-in killed ten men who had entered the pit in an attempt to rescue a colleague trapped by an initial collapse early last Friday. Officials have ruled out the possibility of finding any of the men alive and no bodies have yet been recovered. Rain forecast for the Lassing area over the weekend was expected to hamper efforts to pump water out of the mine. Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima said the disaster had exposed shortcomings in the country's procedures for crisis management, Der Standard newspaper reported. "A better form of crisis management is necessary", the newspaper quoted him as saying. The public prosecutor's office in Leoben, south of Lassing, has opened an investigation to determine whether the accident may have been caused by negligence.

26 July 1998 - An Austrian miner who had been trapped in a collapsed mine for more than a week was brought to the surface today and was in remarkably good health, officials said. The miner, 24-year-old Georg Hainzl, who was found alive earlier today, was pulled up from 60 metres underground through a narrow drill shaft at about 2045 GMT. He was taken to hospital in Graz, 200km south-west of Vienna. Efforts to locate the other ten missing miners, buried following a second mudslide after they entered the pit in an attempt to rescue Hainzl, are continuing.

29 July 1998 - Rescuers, attempting to save ten Austrian miners trapped in a collapsed pit for 12 days, abandoned a descent into the mine today because the walls of a shaft were unstable, officials said. Six rescuers, who entered the partly caved-in mine to check its stability, were forced out of the shaft because the earth around them was so saturated that they feared another collapse. So far rescuers, trying to reach an area 130 metres underground where they think the men are stuck and possibly alive, have only managed to bore ten metres down into the pit.

2 August 1998 - A much delayed effort to save ten men buried in an Austrian mine for 16 days proceeded slowly today after drillers ran into new obstacles. Officials were pinning their hopes on a first-aid channel eight inches wide which was being bored towards a hollow where the men might be after drilling of a 20 inch rescue shaft had to stop last night. Rescuers hoped to lower a camera and a microphone into the first-aid channel today to find out if the men are still alive. But plans to reach the hollow during the night were thwarted by technical problems and officials stopped predicting when the breakthrough would come. "What we are doing here is no standard procedure where we can say what will happen in five minutes", a drilling specialist said. "We are reckoning how things are going to work out technically. We can't have a time plan". Drilling of the first-aid channel was resumed shortly after midnight in the glare of floodlights after the hole had been reinforced with cement an agonising 13 feet short of the hollow. Work on the 20 inch shaft, which was meant to be used to winch the miners out, ground to a halt last night at a depth of 396 feet. It was less than four hours after drilling resumed following a 24-hour interruption caused by technical problems. "Things are looking bad", rescue operation spokeswoman Verena Nowotny said. "Earth and stone keep filling the shaft. The issue now is whether the shaft can be reinforced with cement". It was not known if or when drilling through the rescue shaft might resume. Officials said they planned to drill a third hole in maybe a week as a backup rescue shaft through which the men might be winched out of the magnesium silicate mine. In the meantime, any survivors would be fed with drinks and food through the first-aid channel once it reached the hollow, they said.

3 August 1998 - Rescuers today considered whether to call off a 17-day search for survivors in a caved-in Austrian mine after failing to find ten missing men in an air pocket where they were thought to be. The rescue team had been clinging to hopes of finding at least some of the men in a so-called "dome" or hollow 130 metres down - and were trying to determine if anyone could possibly still be alive elsewhere in the mud-filled mine. "A medical evaluation will decide if there is a theoretical chance that anyone could still be alive somewhere in the pit", rescue operation spokesman Alfred Zechling said in the Alpine village of Lassing, south-west of Vienna. Hopes of finding survivors were raised a week ago when another miner who had been given up for dead after a collapse was pulled out unscathed after ten days underground, but those hopes were all but dashed yesterday when no one was found in the hollow that was the most likely refuge. A video camera and a microphone lowered into the cavity down a specially bored 20cm shaft failed to register anyone dead or alive. The camera was sent down again early today with stronger lights but to no avail.

4 August 1998 - Mumbai, India

Keywords: Accidents, Buildings

Rescuers tunnelling through heaps of tangled concrete and steel had pulled 35 people, including 14 dead, from a collapsed building in Mumbai today. Many more are feared trapped, since local residents estimated soon after the seven-storey building collapsed yesterday that 70 people had been caught inside. "We dug a hole under the building after we heard voices some five hours after the collapse", chief fire officer V.V. Rao said. "We found a cave-like formation where people were huddled together. Eight people were rescued". Authorities said the dead were nine men and five women. Yesterday they had said the toll was at least 15, but the figure was revised after checks with hospitals. Despite the residents' estimates, fire brigade officials said they had no confirmation as yet of the number of people still under the debris. Fire officer Rao said the estimates of the number trapped inside the building varied because they had not received a confirmed guest and employee list from a hotel housed in the building. The Govind Tower building, located in the Bandra suburb, had a shopping area on the ground floor and a cheap hotel occupying its top three floors. The rest of the building was divided into 18 flats, many of whose occupants were believed to be inside when it crashed. Rao said rescue work was hampered by 36 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders in a ground floor shop. "It was difficult to use gas cutters because of the LPG cylinders", he said.

5 August 1998 - The death toll from a collapsed building in Mumbai climbed to 35 today and rescue officials said more people could be trapped in the rubble. "The toll has gone up to 35, of which 19 are males and 16 females", a fire brigade official said. Rescue workers pulled out a total of 56 people, including the 35 dead, after the seven-storey apartment block collapsed on Monday night (3 August). "We are still looking for another eight people", the official said. Fire fighters were using bulldozers, blowtorches and cranes to sift through the rubble of the Govind Tower building in the middle-class suburb of Bandra. Officials said most of the people were trapped in bathrooms or on staircases as they either took shelter or fled when the building began to shudder about three minutes before it came down. The cause of the collapse is under investigation.