The search continues

Rescue workers digging by hand with picks and shovels raced yesterday to reach 65 miners trapped in a coal mine just outside San Juan de Sabinas in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

Officials at the Pasta de los Conchos mine said they were still hopeful of finding survivors to the mine collapse caused by an explosion early Sunday. Two air vents reaching 600 feet into the mine were still working, they said.

It remained unclear whether the vent, which draws out methane gas and carbon monoxide while pumping in fresh air, reached the shafts where the miners are trapped. Telephone lines to the mine shafts were cut in the explosion and no one has heard from the workers since early Sunday morning.

"We're moving forward," said Jorge Luis Montelongo, a 31-year-old miner and volunteer rescuer. Like the other rescuers, he emerged from the mine with soot covering his face, hard hat and knee-high rubber boots. "Si se puede," he added. (It can be done).

Dozens of relatives of the trapped workers gathered outside the mine, which is located on a dry, dusty plain. The relatives built a shrine to the Virgin Mary at the mine's front gate, while a public address system blared out a series of prayers.

"God help us and all the families here waiting," a voice leading the prayers said. "But mostly all our prayers go to the rescue crews and the trapped men."

Mining disasters are a tragic fact of life in Coahuila state, which borders Texas along the Rio Grande. Over the past century, 900 people have been killed in mining accidents in the state.

Many of the accidents have been caused by the presence of "firedamp," a volatile mixture of methane and other gases that occurs naturally in coal deposits. Officials suspect firedamp may have caused the collapse at the Pasta de los Conchos mine. Some 80 miners were trapped inside, while 15 were rescued near the mine entrance moments after the explosion.

Juan Jose Galvan, 33, was one of those rescued. He told his wife Ernestina Hiran Ruiz that the explosion knocked him unconscious. One moment he was working in the mine shaft; the next, he awoke inside a hospital, calling out the names of several co-workers who remain trapped.

Workers at the mine earned about $50-$100 a week, she said.

Luis Chavez, Director of Energy and Mines for Coahuila state, said that Mexican mines generally have a higher proportion of gases because Pemex, the national oil and gas monopoly, has shown little interest in the extraction of natural gas in mining areas.

Mine superintendent Ruben Escudero said monitors in the mine did not register a high level of gases prior to the explosion. "I'm not sure what caused this," he said.

As of yesterday afternoon, after more than 36 hours of digging, rescue workers had cleared about 1,312 feet of rubble and were about 325 feet from the spot where officials expected to find two trapped miners.

Most of the workers, however, are trapped much deeper in the mine, behind as much as a mile of rubble. Canisters that provide a six-hour emergency oxygen supply are scattered throughout the tunnels, officials said, and workers also carry a small amount of oxygen as part of their basic equipment. That supply would have run out within hours.

"This (rescue) operation will not stop," said Juan Rebolledo, a spokesman for mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico, which owns the mine. "We will continue as long as there is hope. . . . We don't know how much air they have, in what condition they're in, if perhaps there are long air pockets."

The rescue work went slowly yesterday because officials feared triggering a new collapse that could trap the rescuers. Some officials said reaching the trapped miners could take as long as a week.

Most of the rescuers are workers at the mine, like 21-year-old Adolfo Aguila. Aguila said he worked the same swing shift as the trapped crew, but missed Sunday's accident because it was his day off. (next page »)