The Vice President of Monitoring, Control and Mining Safety of the National Mining Agency, Gustavo Raad, reported that rescuers managed to access the point in the La Mestiza coal mine, located in a rural area of the municipality of El Zulia (Norte de Santander) where 13 workers are still trapped after the explosion inside the tunnel.
At 4:00 a.m. this Thursday, the first lifeless body of one of the workers was found, who is trapped since last Monday May 30 in that coal mine.
This is the first worker found, of the 14 who were trapped, after registering the explosion. Meanwhile, the worker who was burned in 85% of his body as a result of the emergency, died in a hospital in the region.
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“I’m also talking about responsibility that the mining titleholders have regarding the daily and permanent verification of the technical and security conditions of the different titles, in this case of the concentration of methane gas, which must even be done two or even three times a day and maintain adequate ventilation inside the mine,” Raad said.
In this sense, the director pointed out that, “we already managed to access the point where we suppose the fourteen missing persons are, The situation has been difficult due to landslides inside the mine. We have had to stabilize the safety and technical conditions of the mine to prevent landslides, in the process of searching for the missing persons.”
