Hundreds of miners rescued after underground fire in Gauteng State, South Africa.

644 mineworkers have been rescued from a gold mine in Gauteng State, South Africa, following an underground fire on Thursday 26 July 2018. The fire occured at the Gold One operated Modder East Mine in Springs, and all of the miners were able able to reach safe areas (e refuges with their own air supply where miners can wait for specialist rescue teams with breathing equipment), from where they were later evacuated.

The entrance to the Modder East Gold Mine in Gauteng, South Africa. Wikimapia.

The precies cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but the mine operators have been praised by the South African government for the successful rescue of all workers. The incident comes less than two weeks after six miners died in a fire at a copper mine in Limpopo Province, and at a time when their are growing concerns about declining safety standards in the South African mining industry, with almost sixty deaths in the industry so far this year. 

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Underground fire kills six at South African copper mine.

Six workers died in a fire at a copper mine at Phalaborwa in Limpopo Province, South Africa, on Sunday 15 July 2018. The incident at the Palabora Copper Mine was reportedly caused by a faulty conveyor belt, and prompted the miners to evacuate to a designated safe area and wait for a rescue team. However the rescue team were initially unable to enter the mine due to high temperatures, and were forced to wait for the mine could cool before a rescue could be attempted, at which point the miners were discovered to have died. 

Grieving relatives of six copper miners who died in an underground fire in Limpopo Province, South Africa, on 15 July 2018. Antonio Muchave/Sowetan Live.

High temperatures are not a common cause of death in mine fires, as the limited supply of oxygen usually prevents temperatures from rising too high, though as this is also the oxygen miners need to survive, low temperature fires can still be very deadly. For this reason mine operators typically install safe areas in deep pit mines, which are refuges with their own air supply where miners can wait for specialist rescue teams with breathing equipment.

This is the second recorded fatal accident at the Palabora Copper Mine this year, and brings the total number of fatalities in the South African mining industry to 56 so far in 2018. An investigation into the incident is being mounted by the South African Department of Mineral Resources, which had reportedly previously raised concerns about the safety of the conveyor belt system at the mine. The
National Union of Mineworkers has called for the families of the dead mineworkers to be adequately compensated for their loss, and accused mine management of putting profits ahead of the safety of miners.

The six men have been identified as Shaun Mashigo, 26, from Namakgale, Peter Selowa, 32, from Mashishimale, Vula Eckson Mayindi, 60, from Namakgale, Kgotso Peter Sekgobele, 29, from Maseke Moshate Village, Lebogang Elliot Maake, 37, from Namakgale., and Russel Ricardo Warne, 24, from Phalaborwa.

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Smoking sinkhole kills two in Jharkhand, India.

Two people have died after a smoking sinkhole opened up in the town of Jharia in Dhanbad District in Jharkand State, India earlier this week. Fourteen-year-old Rahim Khan was sweeping the pavement outside his fathers shop when the ground collapsed beneath him sucking him in. His father, Bablu Khan, 40, jumped into the hole in an attempt to save him, but was also swallowed by the hole.A team of rescuers from dug down into the hole in an attempt to recover the two missing people, but was forced to abandon the effort after 28 hours when they encountered a smoke-filled chamber with temperatures in excess of 80°C.

The scene of the June 2017 Jharia sinkhole. Newslions.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace.

Attempts to dig out the June 2017 Jharia sinkhole. Newslions.

On this occasion the sinkhole has been linked to a fire that has been burning in an abandoned coal mine beneath the town for over a hundred years. Underground fires can burn at a low level for very long periods of time. Where oxygen is limited but available the fuel is not consumed rapidly as in a fire at the surface, and as long as the oxygen remains available it will continue to survive. A coal fire which started at Planitz in Germany in 1476 was not extinguished until 1860, while a fire at Emalahleni in Mpumalanga has been burning since 1953 and one in Columbia County, Pennsylvania since 1962. A fire at Burning Mountain, Australia is thought to have been burning for about 6000 years. The fires at Jharia have been linked to a number of sinkholes in the area, some of them very large, including one in 1997 that swallowed about 250 homes over a period of a few hours. These fires also produce toxic fumes, such as sulphur dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which have an adverse effect on the health of people living in the area.

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Underground fire in Trinityville, Jamaica, not volcanic.

Residents of the rural community of Trinityville in St Thomas Parish, Jamaica, have raised alarms about the possibility of a volcanic eruption in the area after smoke began rising from beneath the ground on a Coffee farm at Mount Vernon in the west of the community. No visible fire could be seen at the site, but digging beneath the ground rapidly resulted in an increase in smoke accompanied by flames. Jamaica is of volcanic origin, and while it does not currently suffer any volcanic activity, it is located on the boundary between the Caribbean Plate to the south and the Gonâve Microplate to the north, with the boundary between the two tectonic plates running east-to-west across the center of the isand, so the possibility of a volcanic eruption there is not to far fetched. However Simon Mitchell of the Department of Geology and Geography at the University of the West Indies does not believe this fire is of volcanic origin, suggesting instead that buried woody remains under the hillside have somehow ignited, and that the resultant smoke is a result of slow burning of this buried wood in a low-oxygen environment.

Lesley Williams, a resident of Mount Vernon, investigates the underground fire burning on a Coffee farm there. Ricardo Makyn/Jamaica Gleaner.

Underground fires can burn at a low level for very long periods of time. Where oxygen is limited but available the fuel is not consumed rapidly as in a fire at the surface, and as long as the oxygen remains available it will continue to survive. A coal fire which started at Planitz in Germany in 1476 was not extinguished until 1860, while a fire at Emalahleni in Mpumalanga has been burning since 1953 and one in Columbia County, Pennsylvania since 1962. A fire at Burning Mountain, Australia is thought to have been burning for about 6000 years.

The approximate location of the Mount Vernon Fire. Google Maps.

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Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake off the south coast of the Dominican Republic.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake at a depth of 20.8 km off the south coast of the Dominican Republic, slightly...

Underground fire at former coal mine near Gateshead, England.

The Tyne and Wear Fire service are investigating a possible underground fire at the site of the former Clara Vale mine workings. The fire is not thought to present any hazard to the public, but part of a local...

Magnitude 4.8 Eathquake in the southwest Dominican Republic.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.8 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km in San Cristóbal Province in the southwest of the...

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