Management failures blamed for fatal coal mine blast

HEGANG, Heilongjiang, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Safety officials and investigators have blamed poor management and inadequate safety precautions for the coal mine blast that has claimed 104 lives so far in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

As of 2:30 a.m. Monday, four miners remained trapped at XinxingCoal Mine under the state-owned Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group's subsidiary in Hegang City.

Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS),said Monday the accident started with a gas leak in one of the shafts. But as a result of poor ventilation, gas quickly poured into the main tunnel and triggered an explosion that shook 28 of all the 30 mining platforms in operation.

He said management of the mine were to blame for failing to evacuate the workers promptly after an extraordinarily high gas density was detected in the pit.

"Investigators are yet to determine the exact cause of the accident after a thorough probe at the site," said Luo.

"The accident has again revealed many problems in colliery management -- it's a lesson we must all learn."

A total of 528 miners were working in the pit when Fan Minghua's gas detector beeped at 1:37 a.m. Saturday. "I manually tested the gas density in the air, which read over 10 percent," said Fan, who has monitored gas density in the pit for four years.