They just blew up like a coal mine!
"201 dead, hundreds trapped in Turkish coal mine" Associated Press May 13, 2014
ANKARA, Turkey — An explosion and a fire Tuesday killed at least 201 workers at a coal mine in western Turkey and hundreds more remained trapped underground, government officials said as Turkey launched a massive rescue operation.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 people were inside the coal mine in Soma at the time of the accident and 363 of them had been rescued so far. He said at least 80 miners were injured, including one who was in serious condition. The mine is located 155 miles from Istanbul.
Authorities said the disaster followed an explosion and fire caused by a power distribution unit.
Yildiz said most of the deaths were the result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Some 400 rescuers were involved in the operation, he said.
Television footage showed people cheering and applauding as some trapped workers emerged out of the mine, helped by rescuers, their faces and hard hats covered in soot.
That won't last long.
The rescue effort was being hampered by the fact that the mine was made up of tunnels that were miles long, said Cengiz Ergun, the leader of Manisa province, where the town is located.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the mine and the hospital in Soma seeking news of their loved ones.
SOMA Komur Isletmeleri A.S., which owns the mine, said the accident occurred despite the ‘‘highest safety measures and constant controls’’ and added that an investigation was being launched.
Turkey’s worst mining disaster was a 1992 gas explosion that killed 263 workers near the Black Sea port of Zonguldak.
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"Tensions rise amid Turkish mine blast; Victims’ families scold officials on information lag" by Sebnem Arsu and Alan Cowell | New York Times May 15, 2014
SOMA, Turkey — As hopes began to fade Wednesday for hundreds of coal miners still trapped underground in a hellish explosion, antigovernment protests broke out across the country, while victims’ families demanded answers in what is emerging as perhaps the worst industrial accident in the country’s history.
Well, you know, Turkey is too preoccupied being a NATO lackey and helping Al-CIA-Duh in Syria, so you gotta cut government a break.
Btw, that antigovernment thing is becoming a theme, too, and is most instructive.
Thousands of people have gathered here in Soma, the nearest town to the mine, in hopes of getting news of relatives and friends who are unaccounted for. Their frustrations erupted in a rock-throwing protest in front of the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was broken up by the police in clouds of tear gas. Demonstrations also broke out in Ankara, the capital, and in Istanbul.
U.S. criticism coming shortly, right?
Many relatives of the miners have complained about a lack of information from the government and local emergency agencies.
Be it Malaysia, be it Korea, be it anywhere, governments are all comprised of the same $lef-$erving $hits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“No official came here to talk to us, explain what’s going on,” said the aunt of a 25-year-old miner, who asked not to be identified by name.
Near the mine entrance, mournful family members watched mostly in silence as rescue workers slowly removed bodies, some of them charred, from the mine’s fiery and poisonous depths. As the rescue operation dragged on, the official death toll rose to 274.
Quite a change for people cheering a day earlier.
More than 200 miners were thought to still be underground after an explosion in a power distribution unit Tuesday set off a fire that was still burning Wednesday.
Then they are dead.
The death toll was the highest seen in a Turkish mining disaster, surpassing the 263 workers who died in a gas explosion at a mine near Zonguldak on the Black Sea in 1992.
“We are worried that this death toll will rise,” the energy minister, Taner Yildiz, told reporters in Soma, about 75 miles northeast of the Aegean port of Izmir. “I have to say that our hopes are dimming in terms of the rescue efforts.”
Yildiz said on Tuesday that 787 workers were listed as being in the mine, but because of a shift change that was underway when the explosion happened, the exact number still trapped was uncertain.
The dirt road leading here would normally be used by trucks loaded with tons of coal. On Wednesday, however, military police had set up a cordon and it resembled a huge parking lot for ambulances, police vehicles, and private cars.
Miners in hard hats, their clothes smeared with dirt and dust, wiped sweat and grime from their faces as they walked away from the rescue site, looking exhausted and overwhelmed.
“We came here as soon as we heard about an explosion,” said a 28-year-old miner whose cousin was trapped inside. “We saved many but most of the stranded were dead. I don’t want to say more.”
The miner refused to give his name because he said he needed approval from his employer.
Some of the miners confirmed officials’ fears about further fatalities.
“Even after only two sections, where machines and people operated together, were emptied, the death toll is still higher than what has been announced,” said Ertan Yildiz, a miner who has been assisting emergency workers. “There are other sections where we entirely rely on manpower and have no idea how many people were stuck there at time of the blast.”
By Wednesday, 360 workers had been brought to safety by hundreds of rescuers, including some miners who had survived the explosion, according to the semiofficial Anadolu News Agency. But some parts of the facility remained inaccessible.
“Even with a gas mask, it is hard to survive,” Sami Kilic, a miner who has been working at the Soma mine for nine years, told the news channel CNN Turk. “When a power distribution unit explodes, power goes off; when power goes off, ventilation breaks down; when ventilation breaks down, air circulation stops, and so do chances to live.”
Smoke continued to rise from the entrance to one tunnel. A group of miners halted rescue efforts after they were exposed to intense carbon monoxide from a fire burning 1,300 feet below ground.
Families sat quietly at the courtyard of a small company building used for training and refused to talk to reporters.
Can't say as I blame them.
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"Grief, rage boil over as Turkey holds burials for mine victims; Prime minister’s presidential hopes take a hit" by Desmond Butler and Suzan Fraser | Associated Press May 16, 2014
SOMA, Turkey — With photos of their loved ones pinned to their chests and chanting the names of lost miners, grieving relatives laid their dead to rest in mass burials Thursday, as gravediggers labored to make room for scores more victims of Turkey’s worst mining disaster.
:-(
‘‘The love of my life is gone,’’ women wailed loudly, swaying and singing improvised laments about the departed as bodies were lowered, one by one, into the freshly dug graves.
Rescue teams recovered another nine victims, raising the death toll to 283 from Tuesday’s disaster, with at least 140 miners believed still trapped underground, according to government figures.
Rage blended with grief as revulsion over poor safety conditions and what some perceived as government indifference set off protests across Turkey. ‘‘It’s not an accident, it’s murder,’’ read a banner waved by trade unionists who marched through the streets of Istanbul.
The disaster has stirred up new hostility toward Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and thrown his presidential ambitions off stride.
Awwww!
Blackening his reputation further, Turkish newspapers published a photograph Thursday of one of Erdogan’s aides kicking a protester who was being held on the ground by armed police.
Well, Turkey is a close ally of Israel.
At a graveyard in the mining town of Soma, where coal has been the main industry for decades, mourners said they spent their whole lives fearing a disaster like Tuesday’s, in which an explosion set off a deadly fire just as workers were preparing for a shift change, trapping hundreds underground. No miner has been brought out alive since before dawn Wednesday.
‘‘The wives of the miners kiss their husbands in the morning. When they come back, even if they are five minutes late, everyone starts calling,” said 45-year-old Gulizar Donmez, whose husband and father are both miners and whose neighbor was among the victims. ‘‘You never know what is going to happen.’’
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the search for survivors was being hampered by a fire that had spread to a conveyor system — engulfing a 650-foot stretch of tunnel — but progress was made Thursday toward extinguishing it. Rescue operations have been suspended several times as fire created toxic fumes and too-risky conditions for rescuers.
I can't read this cookie-cutter crap. The names change, that's all. All these disasters are reported the same way. It's always good government, progress being made, poor authorities.
Emergency crews detected a drop in carbon monoxide levels ‘‘which means that the fire has gotten smaller,’’ Yildiz said.
Erdogan, who is expected to announce his candidacy soon for Turkey’s presidential election in August, was greeted by angry protests during a visit to Soma on Wednesday after he referred to mining accidents as ‘‘ordinary things’’ that ‘‘happen all the time.’’
It's STINKING ELITES at the TOP of EVRY GOVERNMENT, isn't it?!
What an ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Turkish leader was forced to take refuge inside a supermarket after angry crowds shouting ‘‘Murderer!’’ and ‘‘Thief!’’ — in a reference to alleged corruption — clashed with police.
I wish they'd killed him.
An Erdogan aide, Yusuf Yerkel, was photographed kicking a protester being pinned to the ground by special forces police.
Yerkel issued a statement Thursday expressing regret, but also claimed he was provoked. ‘‘I am sorry that I was not able to keep calm despite all the provocations, insults, and attacks that I was subjected to,’’ he said.
Another soul for God to sort out.
You know, looking back through history and you see Turks have been assholes. Ottoman Empire sucked and then the Armenian genocide commenced. As for today, ask the Kurds how kind are the Turks. That's what happens when you sell in with NATO and the USraeli empire.
In contrast, President Abdullah Gul, visiting Soma on Thursday, referred to the mine explosion as ‘‘a huge disaster,’’ adding: ‘‘The pain is felt by us all.’’
The mood was more restrained than during Erdogan’s visit, though townspeople angry at what they said was the slow rescue operation shouted at him, demanding that more be done to reach possible survivors.
Erdogan has made no secret of his desire to become Turkey’s first popularly elected president. His party swept local elections in March despite a corruption scandal that forced him to dismiss four government ministers and has also implicated him and family members.
Erdogan denies the allegations, saying they are part of a plot to bring his government down.
I used to think that because it's been tried before, but either way the Turks lose.
Related: Turkey in Turmoil
Also see: After corruption flap, Erdogan receives electoral lift in Turkey
Can you say rigged elections?
Turkey’s largest trade union confederation, representing some 800,000 workers, joined a one-day strike Thursday by other unions to demand better working conditions for miners.
In the Black Sea port of Zonguldak, site of Turkey’s previous worst industrial accident, where a 1992 gas explosion killed 263, miners gathered but refused to enter a mine. At the protest in Istanbul, trade union groups tried to march to the local social security department but were blocked by police and staged a sit-in instead.
Authorities said the disaster followed an explosion and a fire at a power distribution unit, and most deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
The government said 787 people were inside the mine at the time and that 383 were rescued, many with injuries.
Erdogan has promised a thorough investigation and Hurriyet newspaper reported that a team of 15 prosecutors has been assigned to the inquiry.
Turkey’s Labor and Social Security Ministry said the mine had been inspected five times since 2012, most recently in March, when no safety violations were detected.
But the country’s opposition party said Erdogan’s ruling party had voted down a proposal to hold a parliamentary inquiry into several smaller accidents at mines around Soma.
Ooops!
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I can't see the we$tern media running with this story like they did the Chilean miners. For one thing, too many dead and no happy ending rescue.
"This has got to be one heck of an embarrassment
to Erdogan, because the opposition party presented a mine safety
legislation weeks ago before the explosion, and Edrogan's party rejected
it.
The
Turkish government rejected a proposal by the main opposition party two
weeks ago that sought to look into the frequent deaths at coal mines in
the town of Soma, where a mine explosion on Tuesday has caused the
deaths of at least 274 people so far in western Turkey. The Republican
People's Party (CHP) proposal sought to look into frequent explosions at
the coal mines in Soma and to establish a commission in parliament to
investigate the lack of safe working conditions at the mines. It was
rejected on April 29 due to the votes of deputies from the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The other interesting bit of business which came to light
is the fact that the AKP government has some very close ties to Soma
Holdings.
Minister
Yıldız’s statement was not a coincidence. Soma Holding, the parent
company of Soma Coal, has close ties with the AKP government. Melike
Doğru, the wife of the general director of Soma Holding Mine
Enterprises, is a councilor from the government party. Soma Coal also
provided the infamous charity coal bags which were distributed by the
AKP during the previous local elections. Charity distribution is one of
the most important political tools of the government party in recruiting
support from the country’s poor. Soma Holding has profited greatly
from its relations with the AKP government. The holding, which entered
the underground mining sector during the privatization drive of the
1990s, was strengthened by the decision of the AKP government to
legalize the “royalty” system which is based on renting in return for a
coal share in 2005. According to the previous statements of the
president of Soma Holding, Alp Gürkan, thanks to the royalty system, the
company has been able to reduce the cost of coal from 130-140 dollars
per ton to 23.80 dollars per ton, including the royalty share. The
subcontracting of unskilled mining labour was one of the main factors in
reducing the costs, as the average monthly wage of nearly 5,000 mine
workers is only 500 dollars.
For any large corporations, people are utterly expendable, and
profits are king; it is no different with this corporation than it is
for other corporations which suppress labor costs and safety to the
point where things like this continue to happen; but no one gets prosecuted, because it is the large corporations which fund election cycles" -- whatreallyhappened
Oh, yeah, that, too.
Related:
"2 killed at West Virginia coal mine" Associated Press May 14, 2014
WHARTON, W.Va. — Two workers died after they were trapped at a West Virginia coal mine with a history of safety violations, federal and state officials said Tuesday.
Yup, NOTHING F****ING CHANGES!!!!!!!!!!
A ground failure occurred about 8:45 p.m. Monday, trapping the workers, safety agency officials said in e-mails. The miners’ bodies were recovered, and safety personnel were on the site of Brody Mine No. 1 in Boone County, about 50 miles south of Charleston.
No additional injuries or trapped workers were reported, spokeswoman Leslie Fitzwater Smithson of the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety, and Training said in an e-mail.
Preliminary indications show that a coal burst was responsible, according to state officials and mine owner Patriot Coal.
Coal bursts are violent failures of ribs, roofs, or floors in underground mines, according to descriptions from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monday’s incident involved the ground, MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere said in an e-mail.
The bursts — a hazard in mining for decades, according to the CDC — cause coal to be ejected into the mine with enough energy to injure or kill miners.
St. Louis-based Patriot said in an e-mailed statement that Monday’s burst occurred during retreat mining operations — when pillars that support the roof are collapsed and removed from a completed area of work.
Could this be more than an accident and shoddy and negligent procedures instead?
I wonder how the water tastes.
In October, the federal safety agency designated Brody Mine as a pattern violator, meaning it had repeatedly broken federal health and safety regulations in the previous year.
Patriot said in a statement at the time that it believed the mine didn’t qualify for the status and that it intended to contest it. The statement did not address the safety record.
During MSHA’s most recent review period from April 1, 2013, to March 31, the mine was cited for 192 safety violations, including 33 for high or reckless disregard for miners’ health and safety. The mine also received four citations this month for violations including damaged rollers or other conveyor belt components.
Since January, six accidents have occurred at the mine, including one incident in which a miner’s finger was caught in machinery, according to MSHA’s online records.
On March 11, gas ignited in an entry of a section of the mine as workers were extracting coal, according to MSHA. No miners were injured.
The remaining four accidents involved muscle strains and other minor incidents.
The mine produced 954,741 tons of coal in 2013, MSHA records show, and it employs about 270 workers. The two killed Monday were Eric D. Legg, 48, of Twilight and Gary P. Hensley, 46, of Chapmanville.
Robert Rash, chief of the Wharton-Barrett Volunteer Fire Department, said he grew up with Legg in the Wharton area. He said Legg became a coal miner after he graduated from high school.
‘‘That’s all that’s around here, actually. Deep mine and strip mine,’’ said Rash, whose department was among the responders to the accident.
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Only for one day's worth of play in the AmeriKan paper. Hmm.
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Power Surge
There will be one tomorrow, I promise.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
The hits are low on this. Turkey's government must be blocking it.
"Turkish workers decry safety at mine; Company and government deny negligence" by Desmond Butler | Associated Press May 17, 2014
SOMA, Turkey — The Turkish government and mining company officials vehemently denied Friday that negligence was at the root of the country’s worst mining disaster even as opposition lawmakers raised questions about possible lax oversight.
No wonder the Turks are so pissed. That's what happens when you have a lying and looting government.
***************
Protesting workers have described the Soma disaster as murder, not an accident, because of what they call flawed safety conditions at that mine and others in the country. Police used tear gas and water cannons Friday to disperse rock-throwing protesters in Soma, where about 1,500 demonstrators urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to resign.
U.S. criticism to soon follow, yes?
The government has asked for a parliamentary inquiry into the disaster to find out what happened and why, but it appeared that officials had already made up their minds Friday.
A cover-up commission for Turkey's 9/11?!!??
‘‘There’s no negligence with respect to this incident,’’ insisted Huseyin Celik, a deputy leader of the ruling party. He said the mine in Soma ‘‘was inspected vigorously 11 times since 2009.’’
‘‘Let’s learn from this pain and rectify our mistakes,’’ he said. “This is not the time to look for a scapegoat.’’
This is no delight at all; this is offensive as a human being.
Akin Celik, the Soma mining company’s operations manager, echoed the government’s argument.
‘‘There’s no negligence with respect to this incident. We all worked with all our heart and soul. I have not seen anything like this in 20 years,’’ he told reporters.
Their comments raised the question, however, of how the mine could have been checked so often and still have such a deadly fire.
Ibrahim Ali Hasdan, a Soma resident, said he was astonished by claims there was no negligence. I'm not.
Governments and corporations lie, that is what they do!!! One for control, the other for profit.
************
Ozgur Ozel, an opposition lawmaker from the Soma region, petitioned parliament in October to hold an inquiry into mine safety but the proposal was voted down.
Yeah, I know, and that is buried on a Slow Saturday. Why is my new$paper always late to things?
Ozel says there is a mine accident every three or four months in the Soma region and 11 workers have died in the last three years.
Mine inspections do take place but the owners are tipped off up to a week before, Ozel alleged.
Same in AmeriKa, and has been for decades!! I used to be a cook!
“The main suspicion about it is that there is a relationship between the government and those running this mine and the mine was not being properly supervised” for health and safety due to those ties,” he said.
If you are suspicious the next step is a conspiracist. Never mind if it's the truth, just chew on this rank rot propaganda pre$$.
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