Miscellaneous

Citation

(2002), "Miscellaneous", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 11 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2002.07311dac.004

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

4 August 2001, Flood in coal mine, Nandan County, China

More than 70 miners have been confirmed dead in a south China tin mine which flooded last month, the Communist Party's leading newspaper said today after days of official denials. A government minister was dispatched to Guangxi province yesterday to investigate. The mine owner has been detained, the newspaper said. The People's Daily said more than 70 were now confirmed dead in the July 17 accident in Guangxi's Nandan county. Other reports had said the accident occurred July 16. The People's Daily said the mine flooded when miners drilled into a disused shaft that had been filled with water to stop it from collapsing.

8 August 2001, Collapse of factory

At least three people have died after a factory condemned as unsafe collapsed in China. As many as 100 others were trapped in the debris of the collapse in Huangtian on the south-eastern coast. The electroplate factory collapsed without warning, an official said. Most of the people in the factory were migrant workers from poorer, inland provinces. The state-run newspaper Beijing Daily, quoting survivors, said more than 100 people were in the factory when it collapsed. Rescue efforts have been hampered because the factory is near a river and part of the debris was covered during high tide. Tide waters have already covered that part of the wreckage twice, making survival unlikely for any still buried. The building's owner and at least one factory manager have been arrested for operating the factory despite an order from town safety officials to shut it down.

21 August 2001, Flood in tin mine, Nandan County, Guangxi Province, China

Investigators have pumped out a south China tin mine which flooded and found 77 bodies, but the remains of other miners killed in the accident may still be buried, a government spokeswoman said today. The July 17 flooding of the mine in the southern Guangxi region was one of the worst disasters this year in China's accident-plagued mining industry. The government said it still did not know how many miners were trapped when they drilled into a disused, water-filled shaft, unleashing a torrent, but state media said hundreds were working in the mine and that the number killed may never be known because bodies will have rotted in the floodwaters. Pumping out the seven flooded mine shafts took 20 days, with 1,500 people working round the clock in the heat, humidity and foul air of the pit, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the pumping operation was completed last night. A spokeswoman for the government's industrial safety bureau said today that 77 bodies had been found, but it was possible that more bodies were covered by mud. Mine executives hired armed thugs and paid off victims' families in an effort to conceal the accident, according to state-run newspapers. Their reports on the disaster eventually forced the government, which at first denied an accident had happened, to investigate.

9 September 2001, Collapse of temple, South-West China

A 200-year-old temple undergoing renovation in south-west China collapsed this week killing 13 workers, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said today. Seven others were injured in the accident (September 6) in the Garze region of Sichuan province. A chronic lack of maintenance had left the temple with a leaking roof and rotten main pillars, Xinhuan said.

26 September 2001, Collapse of coal mine, Godda District, India

A coal mine in an eastern Indian state caved in today, crushing at least 20 workers, officials said. The casualties of the accident in the Godda district, in the mineral-rich Jharkhand state, included nine women, said S.P. Singh, director for technology at Eastern Coalfields Limited. Fourteen bodies had been recovered, Singh said. The collapse seemed to have been caused by heavy rains in the area, officials said.

1 October 2001, Vessel with asylum seekers denied entry by Australia

The Australian government today used soldiers to remove 200 asylum seekers from troop ship HMAS Manoora, where they have lived for two weeks, on to the island of Nauru. Twelve Australian troops on board Manoora initially escorted six asylum seekers onto a waiting bus on Nauru, before the island's government called a halt to the forced disembarkations. A second group of six asylum seekers were also forced ashore. The asylum seekers immediately protested that they had been tricked into believing they would be entering negotiations with Australian officials. The first six off the Manoora immediately began a sit-in, refusing to be transferred to the Australian-funded asylum processing camp on the island. The government of Nauru has opposed accepting anyone who refused to leave the vessel of their own free will. "After two weeks of patient and reasonable discussions with them, it was made clear to them that they would be expected to get off," said a spokesman for Australia's immigration minister, Philip Ruddock. "Six people were brought off using minimal restraint."

4 October 2001 – A two-week stand-off ended, today, when the last of more than 200 refugees agreed to leave troop ship HMAS Manoora and be taken to Nauru for asylum procedures. A small group of mainly Iraqi refugees finally abandoned demands to be taken to Australia, late today, and were taken off the vessel and transferred, by bus, to a specially built refugee camp, in the heart of Nauru. The refugees' asylum applications are being processed by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees staff on Nauru.

7 October 2001 – The Australian navy has fired shots across the bow of an Indonesian vessel carrying asylum seekers, in an attempt to force it to leave Australian waters. Officials say the refugees have been throwing children off the boat to force the navy to rescue them. Personnel from HMAS Adelaide intercepted the vessel, thought to contain some 300 mainly Iraqi refugees, as it entered Australian waters about 120 miles from Christmas Island off the north-west coast yesterday evening. A party was sent aboard to see if help was required, but also to tell the captain and crew of stiff new penalties for anyone caught smuggling illegal immigrants into Australian territory. The navy officers have been trying unsuccessfully to persuade the boat's crew to return to international waters. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the fact that the children being thrown overboard were wearing lifejackets showed the action was premeditated. "It would be unfortunate if the steps being taken by the passengers lead to a loss of life but we will do our best to ensure that doesn't happen," he said. Earlier asylum seekers were sent to the island of Nauru. Last month, the Australian parliament brought in new laws aimed at halting the flow of asylum seekers. The new legislation reinforced Australia's authority to turn boat people away, and increased the penalties for anyone smuggling illegal immigrants.

9 October 2001 – The Australian navy was forced to rescue a group of mainly Iraqi asylum seekers at sea after they sabotaged their rickety Indonesian vessel and it began to sink in the Indian Ocean, Prime Minister John Howard has said. Howard told a radio station the illegal immigrants were on board the Australian navy ship HMAS Adelaide. However after being accused by officials of throwing their children overboard on Sunday (October 7) after Australia tried to force them back into international waters, Howard said they were not welcome in Australia. He said a decision about what to do with the 187 asylum seekers would be made in the next 24 to 48 hours, but reacted with fury to claims the latest migrants allegedly threw or pushed children into the ocean Sunday. The Adelaide had plucked 14 people, children included, from the sea as naval personnel made repairs to the boat after it was damaged the first time. They were sent on their way, but the boat developed further problems. High seas prevented them landing at remote Christmas Island today and a decision was due soon on their fate, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said.

10 October 2001 – Papua New Guinea today agreed to join fellow impoverished Pacific island state of Nauru in taking illegal immigrants off Australia's hands. The former Australian colony said it would process the asylum claims of 187 mainly Iraqi boat people taken on board the Australian navy frigate HMAS Adelaide after they allegedly sabotaged their rickety Indonesian boat at the weekend (October 6-7). The asylum seekers, some of whom were accused by the Australian government of throwing their children into the ocean when the navy tried to force them back to Indonesia, are on the Adelaide on their way to Australia's remote Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island. Australia will meet all the costs of building a processing centre in Papua New Guinea, just as it had done when Nauru agreed in a US$10 million deal to accept 433 mainly Afghan asylum seekers rescued by the Norwegian ro/ro Tampa near Christmas Island in August. "The processing centre would be operated by the International Organisation for Migration, with assistance from Australia," Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said. "They must be clothed, fed and housed in a stable and secure environment. The processing centre would be handed over, free of charge, to the government of Papua New Guinea once it had fulfilled its purpose," he said in a statement. Neither Morauta nor Australian Prime Minister John Howard gave an estimate of how much the operation would cost or how long it would take to build the centre. The boat people were intercepted at the weekend. Howard and senior ministers said some of the boat people threw their children and themselves into the water in a bid to force the Adelaide to take them to Australia. Howard said the asylum seekers on board the Adelaide would be transferred to Christmas Island and held there until they can be transferred to the new centre in Papua New Guinea.

11 October 2001, Collapse of coal mine, Asansol, India

Authorities in eastern India appealed today for help to rescue up to 150 people feared trapped in a mine cave-in. The mine collapsed on the victims as they were trying to illegally extract coal in Asansol, about 185 miles north-west of the West Bengal state capital of Calcutta. "We have neither the machines nor the expertise to clear the rubble from the illegal mine that caved in," Sumit Haldar, subdivisional officer of Asansol, told Reuters. Government officials in West Bengal state said they had asked federal state-run Eastern Coalfields Ltd for machinery and expertise. "Local people from the area are saying the number of people in the mine could be up to 150," Soma Das, deputy superintendent of police, told Reuters. But he said police had no means of verifying the number. Senior district official Manoj Agarwal said the people feared trapped could have come from neighbouring Jharkhand state as no one had reported anyone missing to local administrators so far. Police initially said the mine belonged to Eastern Coalfields but later said it was an illegal mine that did not belong to the company. They said they did not know who owned the mine. Authorities said a senior federal mines department official had been asked to investigate the accident.

12 October 2001 – Authorities said they expected to start clearing debris from the site of a mine collapse in eastern India later today but they did not believe anyone was trapped. Yesterday, local residents reported up to 150 people were buried when the abandoned mine in West Bengal collapsed but authorities later said they believed no one had been trapped. No complaints of missing or trapped people have come so far to the administration, Manoj Agarwal, a senior district official coordinating the clean-up operation, told Reuters by telephone. Specialist workers with earth-moving equipment were at the scene of the cave-in in Asansol, about 185 miles north-west of Calcutta. A senior police official in Calcutta told Reuters yesterday security forces chased around 150 people from an abandoned open-cast coal mine on Wednesday (October 10) just before it collapsed. "This is where the confusion may have come from," he said.

14 October 2001 – Hopes for the survival of 50 workers trapped since last week in an illegal mine in eastern India were fading today. The mine caved in Wednesday (October 10) near Lalbandh, 150 miles north of Calcutta in eastern Bengal state. Some of the trapped workers could be heard shouting for help, but rescue officials said today that they feared any attempt to drill holes to drop food may cause further damage. The rescue teams were exploring the possibility of digging a tunnel from a safe portion of the adjoining land as an exit route for the trapped workers. Otherwise, clearing the rubble to get to the workers could take "at least three to four months," said Anjan Mukherjee, technical director of state-owned Eastern Coalfields Ltd. Mining operations were abandoned three years ago in an adjacent coal field run by Eastern Coalfields due to the potential risk of subsidence and collapse. However, illegal mining has continued with poor area residents who are willing to risk the hazards.

20 October 2001, Vessel with asylum seekers sinks in the Java Sea

Some 350 migrants from five Muslim countries drowned in the Java Sea off Indonesia at the weekend (October 20-21) after the vessel carrying them to an unknown destination sank, a relief body said yesterday. A total of 44 people survived the disaster, including an eight-year-old boy who lost 21 members of his family, a spokesman for the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. The spokesman said the passengers on the vessel, which had sailed from the Indonesian island of Java on Thursday (October 18), were overwhelmingly Iraqi but included Iranians, Afghans, Palestinians and Algerians. The destination of the vessel was not known, but thousands of illegal migrants pass through seas around South-East Asian countries annually in search of refuge in richer countries to the south, often in Australia. According to survivors' accounts cited by the IOM, 421 people were on board when the vessel set sail but 21 asked to be put back to shore early last Friday and were left on a small Indonesian island. Later in the day the vessel's captain reported that his engines had stopped and that the vessel was taking water. The vessel sank within ten minutes, the survivors reported. The IOM said the survivors were picked up on Saturday – apparently after spending many hours in the water – and were being cared for in the Indonesian port of Bogor. The organisation said it was sending medical teams in to help. No further details were immediately available.

15 January 2002, Collapse of coltan mine, 7 Goma Area, Democratic Republic Of Congo

A mine has collapsed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 30 people. Three bodies have been recovered from the mine but as many as 36 others are still buried under the debris, a week after the collapse. The Bibapama 2 coltan mine, 60 km south- west of Goma, is under the control of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) rebels. Coltan is used to make pinhead capacitors, which regulate voltage and store energy in mobile phones, and many Congolese have switched from farming to work in the far more lucrative coltan mines. Local sources have said that many of the victims were traders, selling food and other supplies to the miners and that the mine had collapsed following heavy rains. The spread of mobile phones across the world in recent years has led to a coltan boom in eastern DR Congo, home to 80 per cent of the world's coltan reserves.

15 January 2002, Leakage of natural gas, coal mine, China

Eighteen coal miners suffocated when natural gas flooded their mine in southern China, a local official said today. The disaster in Loudi, a city in Hunan province, occurred last night, said the official of the city mine bureau. The area is about 900 miles south of Beijing. Thousands of Chinese coal miners are killed every year in accidents, often in small, unlicensed mines that lack fire and ventilation equipment. The mine in Loudi, owned by the city government, was properly licensed and had a good safety record, said the official, who gave only his surname, Fu. The miners were killed when they broke open a vein of gas that left them without air to breathe, Fu said. He said there were 30 men in the mine at the time, and 12 escaped.

25 January 2002, Flooded coal mine, Barroteran, Mexico

The bodies of three Mexican miners were recovered and ten were missing and presumed dead yesterday after an accident flooded a small coal mine in northern Mexico, trapping the miners 200 feet below ground. Four divers and about 150 other rescue workers battled black water and collapsed tunnels in an attempt to pull bodies from La Espuelita mine in Barroteran, about 90 miles south-west of the Texas border city of Eagle Pass. The accident occurred Wednesday (January 23). The mine was a privately owned operation known as a pocito, where thin seams of coal are mined using outmoded methods that generally violate Mexican safety standards, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The mine transported workers on a cable down a small shaft that was also used to deliver coal to the surface. Mines with single vertical shafts are illegal in most countries, including Mexico, because they offer no escape route if the shaft becomes blocked. Local police spokesman Sergio Robles Garza told Mexico's state news agency Notimex that rescuers were frantically digging to try to reach those still in the mine. Authorities have not determined the cause of the accident, but rescuers and mine veterans said miners digging for coal likely broke through to an adjacent abandoned tunnel that had flooded.

1 February 2002, Collapse of factory, Thailand

At least eight Thai workers have been killed and more than 50 injured when part of the factory where they were working an overnight shift collapsed, police and rescue workers said. Officials said the accident at the Delta Electronics plc factory caused estimated material damage of 5-10 million baht ($113,700-$227,500) and would put the plant out of action for at least a month. Police said about 100 Delta employees were working in a section of the plant where the ceiling collapsed, raining heavy steel beams and concrete debris down on the workers below. Delta Executive Director Anusorn Muttaraid said the cause of the collapse was being investigated. He said the accident had suspended Delta's export-oriented production of switching power supply (SPS) and monitors. Delta, Thailand's biggest listed electronic component firm in terms of market value, is a unit of Taiwan's Delta Group (2308. TW), the world's third largest switching power supply maker. "It's difficult to estimate the impact on earnings. Assuming that the plant is interrupted for one month and they make $70 million per month, it may affect their revenues by 8 percent for this year," said an electronics analyst at a foreign brokerage. The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended trading of Delta Electronics shares this morning. The shares closed yesterday up 2.2 per cent at 39.25 baht. Vira Mavichak, director general of the Department of Industrial Works said the government was inspecting the four remaining plants at the site, and if there was a possibility that others were at risk of collapse they would be closed.

2 February 2002 – Seven workers were crushed to death and 57 others injured after a concrete platform fell on them at an electronics factory in Bang Pu industrial estate, Samut Prakan. Another two workers were reported missing. Some 500 workers, mostly women, were on duty at the Delta Electronics (Thailand) factory when the reinforced concrete platform bearing 16 heavy-duty air-conditioners fell on a production line of about 120 workers. The five-rai factory on Sukhumvit road in Muang district is divided into a three-storey office zone and a two-floor production line area. The manufacturing zone comprised four production lines. The concrete platform was hung above the second floor of the production zone. The air-conditioners controlled temperatures for electronic parts production. The platform, 30 centimetres thick, 4.5 metres wide and 90 metres long (the same length as the factory), thundered as it fell. Seven women working below were killed instantly. Most of them sat next to one another. Their bodies were buried under the platform and it took rescue workers until 10a.m. to retrieve them. Fifty-seven workers were injured as the falling platform brought down wires, pipes and ceiling tiles. Two other workers were still missing, believed dead. More than 200 police and rescue workers took part in the rescue, which was still going as 1,000 workers arrived for the day shift. Rescue workers from private foundations fought to retrieve the bodies. Samut Prakan governor Sawang Srisakun had to call forensic staff in to carry out their work at the factory. Industry Minister Suriya Jueng-rungruangkij inspected the site along with chiefs from the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) and the Industrial Works Department. He said the platform was hung from the factory roof with steel rods and could not bear the 10-tonne weight of the machines. Not a single pillar had been built to support the structure, despite its length. The platform was hooked on to the roof on one side with the factory's wall on the other side. Mr Suriya said the company had not sought IEAT approval before putting up the platform. Each air-conditioner weighed about 600-700 kilogrammes. The minister ordered the damaged factory closed for repairs. The department and the IEAT would check four other Delta Electronics (Thailand) factories at the industrial estate. They, too, would be closed if they were found unsafe, the minister said. The same order for checks takes effect on factories nationwide. Anusorn Mutra-it, a director of Delta Electronics (Thailand), admitted the platform was overloaded with the air-conditioners, which also vibrated while at work. The factory was built three years ago. He said he would find out if the platform had been added after it opened. He claimed that no regulations required his company to seek approval for putting in the platform. The company usually supervised such tasks itself as it employed 800 engineers. Mr Anusorn said he would find the engineers responsible. The company would take full responsibility for the tragedy. Pol Maj-Gen Pichit Kuantechakup, region 1 police commander, said factory executives were charged with recklessness causing death and adding structures to the factory without authorisation. Delta Electronics (Thailand), a Thai-Taiwanese joint venture, employs 13,000 workers at five factories in the industrial estate and another in the Wellgrow industrial estate in Cha-choengsao. The factories run around the clock making electronic parts for computers and mobile phones.