Chinanews, Nov. 15 - At 7:40 Sunday evening, a coal mine accident occurred in Nanshan Coal Mine in Lingshi County, Shanxi Province. So far, 25 bodies have been found and nine miners are missing. Rescue work is still going on.
This is the second coal mine accident in the county in the past four months. Previously, an explosion occurred in Xiamen Coal Mine, in which 53 people lost their lives.
On November 13, an investigative team led by Zhao Tiechui, head of National Bureau of Coal Mine Safety Supervision Administration, heard a report by local officials about the accident at the rescue site.
This wasn’t the first time for Zhao to “visit” the county. Back in last July, when the serious coal mine explosion occurred in Xiamen Coal Mine, the official rushed to the site for rescue work. To think that three months later, another serious accident should have occurred in the same place! The working conditions in the county couldn't help but arouse the concern of the senior official.
When informed that the safety work license and coal mine safety work license had expired for almost a year in Nanshan Coal Mine, he found it hard to keep his temper.
“Since all these licenses had run out for nearly one year, why didn’t you stop the production? Why didn’t you run through the check-up procedure?”
When asked how many coal mines were there in the county, and how many of them didn’t meet the work safety standards, the local officials answered the questions evasively.
When asked how many coal mines should be closed, a local official replied that he couldn’t’ remember the exact figure.
At this moment, Zhao couldn’t keep his temper any more.
“Have you seen the notification issued by the State Council on closing of coal mines for rectification? Why didn’t you enforce the policy? As the local officials in Lingshi County, you are supposed to protect your people. However, you couldn’t answer any of the questions I asked. What on earth do you know, then? Is this the way you govern your region?!”, the official shouted angrily.
