Fire at Turkish Copper Mine Kills 13

Guardian ^ | September 8, 2004 | Associated Press

[yonif]

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A fire engulfed a copper mine in northern Turkey Wednesday, killing 13 workers and leaving others trapped in smoke-clogged shafts after the flames were extinguished.

About 30 miners were underground when the fire broke out inside the mine in the town of Kure in Kastamonu province, some 185 miles north of the capital, Ankara.

The blaze was extinguished Wednesday afternoon, about four hours after it was sparked by welding inside the mine.

Thirteen bodies were later pulled out by rescuers who needed gas masks to enter the smoke-filled mine, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported.

Nine injured workers were rescued, the agency said. Rescuers were continuing efforts Wednesday afternoon to evacuate the others, who had fled to the lower levels.

``The workers have run to lower levels to escape the smoke, we're trying to dissolve the smoke with fans now,'' said Ilker Keremoglu, chief executive officer of STFA, the Istanbul-based company that owns the mine.

Keremoglu said the fire started during welding inside the mine.

Labor Minister Murat Basesgioglu said the workers were trapped 492 feet beneath the surface.

One of the injured workers, Ali Cinar, told Anatolia that winds blowing inside the mine fed the flames.

``I spent three hours full of fear under the ground,'' Cinar said. ``I cannot describe my happiness.''

Cinar suffered smoke inhalation and some bruises were seen on his body, said the agency.

[JimSEA]

Scary stuff. I went through two mine fires in my career. In one, my Dad was trapped with his partner for two days below the fire. No one died in the two fires, but it was touch and go. The ventilation engineers Magma had were the best in the business and the mine supervision was outstanding. However, one of the fires caught the sulfide ore and is possibly still going behind the bulkheads that were put up in 1960 (The mine was flooded on closing so perhaps not). The other fire was bulkheaded off and eventually put out. CO was no longer detected after 4 months.

These guys were no so lucky. Self rescuiers for the CO are carried by every American miner after the Sunshine Mine disaster but only give short term protection and burn the mouth area. From the quote, these guys did not have any.