18 Miners Killed in a Coal Mine Blaze in Shanxi Province

(Broadcast on August 10, 2002)

According to information from the State Administration for Work Safety, fire swept through a mine shaft owned by the Chiyu Labour Services Company on August 4, 2002. The Chiyu company is in the Linfen district of Huozhou city, Shanxi province. The fire started when an electrical cable set fire to support pillars and the coal seam itself. By three in the morning on August 9, 19 miners had been found of whom 18 were dead. The surviving miner had been taken to hospital for medical treatment. I telephoned Chiyu Coal Mine only a few hundred metres away where a miner gave me information on the local situation. He told that the mine where the accident took place was originally owned by the Chiyu Coal Mine. After the mine leased pits in its current mine district, it auctioned off its older mine(s) to private individuals.

Miner:

The ventilation in the shaft was fine, but there was an accident! At the moment we are on leave and not producing.

Han Dongfang (Han):

Do you mean that the ventilation outlet at the surface had got disconnected from the ventilation duct in the shaft, which wasn't blocked?

Miner:

Yes yes. The duct was clear, but there was an accident down there. The smoke came out through the tunnel and we haven't been able to get down there and mine for a week. This is the Chiyu Mine. Over there is the Chiyu [Labour] Service [pit], which is an old mine. We're a new mine here. The old pits were auctioned off and bought by private owners.

Han:

Who is responsible for safety over there? [at the older mine].

Miner:

The Coal Company.

Han:

The miners who work in the pits that were auctioned off, where do they come from?

Miner:

They are from the village[s]. We haven't worked in those pits since they were sold off in 1997.

Han:

Are they from nearby villages?

Miner:

Yes. Around here.

I rang the Huozhou Coal Company, the main work unit overseeing these smaller mines that had been auctioned off. I wanted to find out more about the safety monitoring system in these small privately-run mines. An official told me:

Official:

Right now... I don't know much about it right now.

Han:

Are these mines managed by your company?

Official:

I don't really know.

Han:

Is there another office that does know?

Official:

Er, Yes... ring... 56222878.

Han:

Which office is that?

Official:

The Safety Inspection department.

Han:

Safety Inspection?

Official:

That's right.

I telephoned the number given to me by the official, the Coal Company Safety Inspection department.

Official:

Oh hell... we're not sure yet.

Han:

Does [the responsibility] for the work safety fall under the Coal Company's management?

Official:

Well... Don't ask me... you need to ring the management office at 2298.

Han:

I just rang the people at 2298. They said you people at 287 would no more about it.

Official:

Well...I don't know.

Han:

Aren't you the department for safety inspection?

Official:

Yes.

Han:

So what do you do regarding safety inspection?

Official:

This matter... er... ask... ask upstairs. [management].

Han:

Who is responsible for safety in these small subcontracted mines?

Official:

Right now... I can't tell you exactly!

Han:

Should the Coal Company be managing these auctioned off pits?

Official:

I... I... I just can't say clearly... ring 2298!

I rang the previous office again.

Han:

Just now the 287 office said they didn't know what's going on and that your office understood the situation.

Official:

Now... please wait a second.

Official (another person)

Hello.

Han:

Hello... I just telephoned the Safety Inspection department over there and they said that the office at 298 understood the situation. The question I am asking is who is responsible for the management of safety inspection in the small mines that have auctioned off?

Official:

Well... I not too sure.

Han:

Is it the responsibility of Coal Company?

Official:

Say that again.

Han:

Shouldn't it [safety inspection in these small pits] fall to the Coal Company?

Official:

Sort of.

Han:

Sorry?

Official:

I suppose so.

Han:

What?

Official:

Yes.

Han:

Which department at the Coal Company is responsible for inspecting safety at these small pits?

Official:

Huozhou city has a Work Safety Committee specially assigned for this.

Han:

In that case, what is the function of [your department] at the Coal Company?

Official:

Coal mine safety. Safety inspection.

Han:

Is the Coal Company responsible [for coal mine safety]?

Official:

Yes. Including township mines and the city-owned mines.

Han:

Including the mine where the accident just happened. Is that under your orbit?

Official:

Yes.

Han:

In the final analysis, who really owns this mine?

Official:

I am not sure. You need to ask the relevant person?

Han:

Who would know this? Who would have a relatively clear idea?

Official:

Ask the people at 287.

Han:

Ask them again?

Official:

Yes.

After exhaustive inquiries I discovered that nine of the 18 miners came from the same small place called Song village. A villager who answered the phone told me what she knew about the family situation of the dead miners.

Villager:

Yes I know about it. Nine people.

Han:

Did you know them?

Villager:

Yes. They were all poor. They left the village to find work because they needed the cash.

Han:

They couldn't live off what they grew on their land?

Villager:

No way.

Han:

Did they have enough land to grow crops to support themselves?

Villager:

No. One guy was not even thirty years old. He had a four-year-old kid and was expecting another child.

Han:

He had a four-year old child and his wife was expecting another kid?

Villager:

That's right.

Han:

This guy, how old was he?

Villager:

Twenty eight... three dead all from one family!

Han:

Three brothers from one family! All Dead?

Villager:

Yes. Also there is another family that lost a father and two sons.

Han:

A father and two sons?

Villager:

They are all poor families in dire straits.

Han:

All of them?

Villager:

Yes.

Han:

Without enough land?

Villager:

Not enough land, that's right.

This warm-hearted villager then helped me to find the phone number of the family that had lost a father and his two sons. I called the household:

Han:

Excuse me, is that the Fan household?

Villager:

Yes. What do you want?

Han:

I am trying to find out more about the mine accident. What happen...

Villager:

Yes, the accident.

Han:

Your family lost people in the accident?

Villager:

Yes.

Han:

Can you tell me which family members died?

Villager:

The father and two sons.

Han:

You are... What relation to the family are you?

Villager:

I am a friend of the family.

Han:

A family friend?

Villager:

I don't really have the time to talk to you about all this.

Han:

You don't want to talk about it right now?

Villager:

No.

Han:

What will the family do now? They have lost...

Villager:

It's a complete disaster. What can they do?

Han:

How is the wife of the dead father?

Villager:

As you'd expect! It's terrible for her.

Han:

Of course. I've heard that the eldest son left three children behind?

Villager:

You heard right.

Han:

How old are they?

Villager:

Still young. The youngest is five the oldest is only ten.

Han:

The eldest is only ten?

Villager:

Yes.

Han:

Have any officials been to talk with you about...

Villager:

No, not at all.

Han:

Nothing about compensation?

Villager:

No.

Han:

Do you know if there will be any compensation or how much?

Villager:

No.

Han:

Do the family know what to do [about getting compensation]?

Villager:

We're poor people here. We don't know the right connections.

Han:

No one from the government has been down there?

Villager:

No.

Han:

What about the village committee?

Villager:

No. No one's been! It's chaos here and I can't talk to you.

Han:

Yes of course, I am sorry.

Villager:

It's ok.

Two weeks before the accident, ten people from the Song village set off together to work in the coal mines. Nine of them are now dead and only one came back. His name is Ren Taiping. Ren was hurt the day before the fire when part of a shaft roof caved in on him. Injured and unable to work, he returned to his village and luckily avoided death. The following is how Ren Taiping described the miserable conditions he and his dead friends had to work in when they were mining for coal.

Han:

You were mining for coal with the nine villagers who died?

Ren:

Yes.

Han:

Did you know them all well?

Ren:

Yes.

Han:

And you were working in the mine with them?

Ren:

Yes.

Han:

Can you tell us anything about the mine?

Ren:

We are poor and were in a fix. Most of the shafts are closed down except for this one that was still working. Someone leaves someone else he knows in charge - you know the kind of thing. We went to work there; all of us from the village worked there for two weeks and then the accident happened. The day before it happened a rock fell on me so I came home. The next day the accident happened just after the shift change.

Han:

What do you think was the biggest problem with regard to safety?

Ren:

As far as safety was concerned the big problem was the roof. There were loads of holes and gaps in it. After the big mines stop production, the small mine bosses take on these shafts.

Han:

Do they use machines to dig and transport the coal?

Ren:

No machines. They use people to dig the coal.

Han:

How do they transport the coal out of the area?

Ren:

Three-wheeler trucks.

Han:

Three-wheelers?

Ren:

Yes. They use them to shift the coal.

Han:

Do you know who owns the mine? Who was your boss?

Ren:

No. We didn't know who the boss was. People like us do the work, we don't get to see the boss. Some people came down to the mine now and again but they didn't talk to the workers.

Han:

You didn't sign a contract or agreement with the boss before you started in the pit?

Ren:

No way.

Han:

How did they pay you?

Ren:

We had a team leader who was in charge of each shift. The bosses would speak to him but they hardly ever said a word to us workers. We had a team leader for our gang of ten men. They would settle up the wages after two weeks work.

Han:

How would they calculate your wages? Was it so much per tonne or...

Ren:

Yes, it was per tonne of coal dug.

Han:

How much would you get paid for every tonne of coal you brought up?

Ren:

Eight, seven or six bucks a tonne. Sometimes just five. It depended on the position of the shaft and how far away it was, whether the coal seam was easy to work, etc.. The most you'd get was eight and a half bucks for a tonne of coal.

Han:

This was when the shaft was a long way away?

Ren:

Yes. Far away or difficult to work. .

Han:

What about the nearest [shaft]?

Ren:

Five bucks. A man could only make between 30 and 50 bucks.

Han:

A day?

Ren:

For a shift. Our village is a long way from the mine so we rented a house over there, but they [the mine bosses] usually wanted us to pay board and lodging and it's all settled up every fortnight [when wages are paid - CLB]. In this case the fortnight wasn't even up - we hadn't been there that long - when the accident happened. Me, I got injured so I come home to rest up. We haven't...they haven't sorted out the wages yet. What I care about most is that I'm still alive. In the village its like our whole world has collapsed. Everyone I see is saying "By God you must be blessed. Ten men set off and only you came back." All I can say is "The Gods must be watching over me!"