Hopes fade for trapped Polish miners
By Samuel Donkin,WNS Poland Correspondent
WARSAW - High levels of gas forced rescuers to suspend their search for 15 miners missing more than a kilometer (3,000 feet) underground Wednesday, and the Polish president said conditions were "getting worse" for anyone trapped and still alive. Anxious family members prayed at the shrine of St. Barbara, the patroness of miners, at the Halemba mine in southern Poland, where a methane explosion Tuesday killed eight coal miners and left the others missing.Three young women lit candles in front of the shrine, then knelt down, clasped their hands and prayed. Others sobbed.
"The situation is getting worse down there and there are no rescue teams there. We cannot exclude that there is still a fire burning at the site and that increases the danger of another explosion," President Lech Kaczynski said after surveying the site."Although one can never lose hope and has to fight to the very end, the situation is very bad."Some 300 meters (yards) of rubble remain between the miners and where rescue workers have reached. Locator devices carried by the missing miners have been emitting no signals, and there have been no other signs that they are still alive.
Attempts to reach them through the night were halted after high concentrations of gas raised fears of a second explosion. Ventilators cleared the area enough to allow a reconnaissance team to start a probe early Wednesday, only to call it off quickly after encountering more gas. Teams have recovered six bodies from the scene of the blast in the southern city of Ruda Slaska, said Zbigniew Madej, spokesman for mine operator Coal Co. Another two bodies were located, but remained underground.
posted by wnsworld @ 11:08 PM
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