"My husband told them the mine is unsafe, I begged him not to go back."

[Joe Chi Minh]

headline of this article in the (UK) Daily Mirror:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/08/26/wife-of-trapped-chilean-miner-mario-gomez-speaks-out-115875-22514081/

Also, in the timber version:

"Safety ladder chiefs forgot:

The mine's owners failed to install an emergency ladder which could have allowed the men to escape, it emerged yesterday.

Inspectors ordered the ladder after a similar cave-in two years ago, in which a man died.

The 33 miners now trapped had believed they could reach the surface through a ventilation shaft marked on a map as an escape route - but were devastated to see no ladder in place.

Shift foreman Luis Urzua told rescue workers:
'We attempted to get up through the air shaft but as we didn't have a ladder, we aborted.'

State prosecutors are looking at legal action against the company, San Esteban Primera."


I did read in one paper yesterday that there was a two-mile gallery in which they could excercise, but no mention of that in other papers.

[Peace Patriot]

1. I read that the miners got to an underground shelter about the size of a small apartment

(something like 20' by 30'). I was relieved to read that they were not in a collapsed space, under rubble, with injuries, but had sufficient space to organize a sanitary area and to be able to move around a bit, socialize and sleep--and that no one was injured. I wondered about the labor struggles that might have been fought over the decades to arrange for such a shelter space underground (provided miners could get to it). I haven't seen anything in news reports about a "two-mile gallery."

Now comes this news that a ladder was missing where they expected to find one, in an air shaft. That must have been very demoralizing--and what a safety violation!

We've now seen two catastrophes resulting from corporations going too deep into the earth--the BP blowout, which spewed oil for months because it was in such deep water that repairs were extremely slow and difficult--and now this one, putting trapped miners so far below the ground that it will take 3 to 4 months (current prognosis) to get to them. They could all die of disease in the meantime, or go stark-raving mad. I think we may be seeing another result of corporate greed--simply going too far, too deep, in search of profits from Mother Earth.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Yes, I read the same. I hope it's true about that gallery, otherwise it just

doesn't bear thinking about.

[bherrera]

10. If there were a gallery, then they could leave

Evidently it's easy to drop a basket with a steel cable to pick up these miners one at each time, if indeed there is a gallery or shaft to bring them to the surface. The story doesn't seem to be correct, unless they mean there should be a shaft lined with steel and proper climbing steps. I am an engineer, and I can envision how such a shaft can be drilled from the surface, and a steel pipe run inside it to avoid a collapse. At the bottom they can build a chamber to serve as a refuge as individual miners are extracted. But I don't see much sense in using a ladder, from 700 meters. It is better to use a steel cable and an extractor. The shaft only has to be about 60 cm in diameter to bring a man up to the surface, one at a time.

[Judi Lynn]

2. That's unforgiveable. Chile MUST prosecute the company. It would be a crime to overlook this.

It's the state's obligation, you'd think, to reinforce the rights of people to be safe at the job they perform for the enrichment of the mine owners while they take away only enough to barely sustain their own lives.

I saw an image of that tunnel the other day, and can't find it right now, but it's in the shape of a vast spiral down from the surface, and the miners are located approximately halfway down, with the cave-in much closer to the surface. I guess it means everything below them is still open and available for walks, or use in the farthest reaches, as a toilet.

It would be delightful to track down the jerk who made the decision to leave the ladder out, and give the miners and their families a night out on the town with him.

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. Sorry, Judi. I didn't properly take in what you said about the spiral shaft.

Thank goodness it's there, anyway.

[Judi Lynn]

6. I found it! I can't transfer the image here, but you can see it going to the 3rd image here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/aug/23/chile-san-jose-mine-trapped-miners

It's in an article posted in the Guardian.

Chile: trapped miners found aliveMiners face four months underground while escape tunnel is built
Paddy Allen
guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 August 2010 14.35 BST

I looked last night, and couldn't find it until today. THIS will explain what I couldn't begin to convey with words alone. :hi:

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Thanks very much, Judi. My wife believes she heard it said on the TV that

the company say they can't afford to pay the miners while they're down there!!! And that the government are paying for the rescue operations.

Must be tough being a mining company and having to do things on a shoe-string, mustn't it? You can't help being moved by their plight.

Wildly waving!

[Judi Lynn]

9. Jeez. Not paying them? I hope a ton of bricks falls on the head of whoever made that decision!

Incomprehensible.

Thanks for the news. Hadn't heard about that. Surely something will be done to comepensate these men, somehow. How ridiculous!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Chilean football star is among 33 people trapped in mine collapse

Chilean football star is among 33 people trapped in mine collapse

Former international whose playing days ended before era of big wages turned to mining after retirement
By Jerome Taylor
Thursday, 26 August 2010

http://www.independent.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/multimedia/dynamic/00439/Pg-26-chile-main-af_439527s.jpg

Hugo Lobos holds a picture of his brother Franklin, the former premier league footballer who
is trapped down the San Jose mine

On the football pitch he was known as el Mortero Magico – the magic mortar. Throughout the 1980s Franklin Lobos had a glittering career in the Chilean premiership, playing for top side Cobresal and representing his country in its attempt to make it to the 1984 Olympics
.
Fans in the dusty northern city of El Salvador, where Cobresal is based, remember a stocky midfielder with powerful free kicks and the ability to hurl the ball prodigious distances.

But today, the 53-year-old is one of the 33 men trapped in the San José gold and copper mine desperately waiting to be brought back to the surface in an audacious rescue attempt that has captivated the world.

In the next few days emergency workers hope to begin construction on a concrete platform which will soon house 28 tonnes of vital digging equipment. Engineers will bore a shaft large enough to winch the men to safety.

But conservative estimates suggest it could take up to four months to pierce through the 700 metres of rock lying between them and the trapped miners. Relatives at Camp Esperanza, the makeshift tent city that has sprung up on the arid hillsides surrounding the mine, have been told not to tell their loved ones how long they will have to wait to see daylight.

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/chilean-football-star-is-among-33-people-trapped-in-mine-collapse-2062206.html

[Judi Lynn]

7. Chilean fled quake area only to be trapped in mine

Chilean fled quake area only to be trapped in mine
'We will have another happy ending,' his wife says of latest ordeal
By Bradley Brooks
updated 43 minutes ago

COPIAPO, Chile — Carola Narvaez breathed in the Atacama Desert's cold dawn air and slowly began to exhale the story of how her family survived a devastating earthquake and worked to rebuild their lives — only for her husband to end up trapped deep inside a Chilean mine.

A tale of two disasters, Narvaez's account embodies the challenges still faced by the poor in Chile despite two decades as Latin America's economic darling. It is a story of incredible misfortune, unwavering faith and a love she said has only been strengthened by adversity.

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/Raul-Bustos-Ibanez.grid-2x2.JPG

Ho / Reuters
Raul Bustos

Narvaez's husband, Raul Bustos, is a heavy-machinery mechanic whose skills have always been in demand. For years he has made a living repairing the equipment that rips copper, the lifeblood of Chile's economy, out of the earth, or helping build massive ships in ports along the nation's 4,000-mile coastline.

Six months ago Friday, the family was living in the port city of Talcahuano, 300 miles south of the capital, where Raul was working for Chilean shipbuilder Asmar.

Like most Chileans, the couple were sound asleep when one of the most powerful earthquakes registered in a century struck the central coast Feb. 27.

What the earthquake did not knock down, the tsunami it triggered washed away. While the family's home survived, ships in Asmar's yards were pushed into the street and the builder's operations destroyed.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38883687/ns/world_news-americas/