Greymouth, New Zealand: The explosion that left 29 miners missing in New Zealand was a series of bangs that pelted debris and made it a struggle to breathe, said a coal cutter who lost consciousness but eventually walked out of the tunnel with minor injuries.
Toxic gases after Friday's explosion still prevented rescuers from entering the mine yesterday, and evidence of heat underground was concerning officials, who feared there could be another blast.
"Something is happening underground, but what it is we don't know," said Peter Whittall, chief executive of Pike River Mine Ltd.
Fresh air was being pumped down an open air line, but gas levels were still fluctuating so much late yesterday that waiting rescue teams were forbidden to enter the mine near Atarau on South Island.
Hope
A 15-cm-wide hole was being drilled from the mountain above down 150 metres to the mine to assess air quality and to lower listening devices. The missing miners have not been heard from since the blast but officials insist the search for them is a rescue operation. The drill is expected to reach the mine wall overnight.
Survivor Russell Smith was an hour late for work on Friday and so was not deep in the mine with those missing. He and fellow survivor Daniel Rockhouse walked out of the tunnel more than an hour after the explosion.
Smith told New Zealand's TV3 news that he was driving a loader into the mine when he saw a flash in front of him. "It wasn't just a bang, finish, it just kept coming, kept coming, kept coming, so I crouched down as low as I could in the seat and tried to get behind this metal door, to stop getting pelted with all this debris," Smith said.
"I remember struggling for breath. I thought at the time it was gas, but ... it was dust, stone dust, I just couldn't breathe. And that's the last I remember," he said. Rockhouse pulled him to safety, and when he regained consciousness the two took at least an hour to walk out of the dust-choked tunnel.
Both were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.
"I could have easily been blown to bits," Smith said, acknowledging he was lucky to have survived.
