The Turkish Mining Disaster
Coal mining is one of the most dangerous occupations around. There have been really monstrous disasters in coal mines in China, France, Japan, and elsewhere. The 1942 Benixhu disaster killed 1599, 1099 Courriees, France in 1906, and 687 were killed at the Mitsubishi Mine in Japan in 1914.
The current Turkish mining disaster may have claimed over 420 victims with 282 bodies recovered and another 140 still missing. Explosions from coal gas, suffocation and cave ins are just a few of the ways you can die if you work underground.
Mining is a rural occupation almost entirely. People that work in or have a job related to a mine are very much like a family. Like it or not I felt more than a little fatalism when I was around coal miners during my short time in West Virginia.
I can hardly imagine what the families of the killed and missing Turkish miners have gone through, the last few days. The conventional wisdom is that coal mining is much safer today than it was in the "good old days". This will be of little solace to the families left behind and even more sadly quickly forgotten until the next mining disaster.
The current Turkish mining disaster may have claimed over 420 victims with 282 bodies recovered and another 140 still missing. Explosions from coal gas, suffocation and cave ins are just a few of the ways you can die if you work underground.
Mining is a rural occupation almost entirely. People that work in or have a job related to a mine are very much like a family. Like it or not I felt more than a little fatalism when I was around coal miners during my short time in West Virginia.
I can hardly imagine what the families of the killed and missing Turkish miners have gone through, the last few days. The conventional wisdom is that coal mining is much safer today than it was in the "good old days". This will be of little solace to the families left behind and even more sadly quickly forgotten until the next mining disaster.
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