REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource investigates a coal mining accident in Sawahlunto, West Sumatra on Friday, Jan 24. The accidents claimed five lives and one of them has been evacuated.
"Five people died and one body has been evacuated," Director General of Mineral and Coal, Sukhyar said recently.
Until Saturday, the Search and Rescue (SAR) team only found one body, Edi (40 years). The team dug the collapse tunnel to find four other victims trapped under the rubble.
"From Friday evening until Saturday morning, we could only dig 10 meters of the tunnel," an official of SAR team in Padang, Zulfahmi, said.
According to some workers, the tunnel has 120 meters length. Some surviving workers said that the mining exploded when they were trying to fix blower in the tunnel.
"Possibly, they forget to unplug the power. That sparked fire then caused the mining's explotion," Zulfahmi added.
The mining belongs to PT Dasrat Sarana Arang Sejati. This is Dasrat’s second coal mining accident since June 2009, when an explosion claimed the lives of 33 workers.
