'No hope' for Mexican mine blast workers

Survival was impossible for 65 coal miners trapped underground by an explosion that burned away oxygen and left toxic gases a week ago in northern Mexico, mining company officials announced today.

No bodies have been recovered from the Pasta de Conchos mine, but an analysis of underground air showed it was too poisonous to breathe, said Xavier Garcia, president of Industrial Minera Mexico, a subsidiary of mining company Grupo Mexico SA de CV.

“From the period of rescue we have now come to recovery,” Garcia said.

The blast that left the miners trapped sparked temperatures reaching 1,110-degrees Fahrenheit (600C) and released heavy amounts of methane gas and carbon monoxide that spread to every corner of the Pasta de Conchos mine, Garcia said.

“The atmosphere inside the mine changed instantly, converting to an environment of high concentrations of methane and carbon monoxide and leaving the presence of oxygen at almost nil,” he said. “These conditions made survival impossible.”

From the day after the explosion, chances for survival did not look good. Those trapped were only carrying a small supply of oxygen, and each passing day without food or water made it harder to believe anyone would be pulled out alive.

Even after the announcement, Jose Luis Silva, 20, said he refused to believe his missing father was among the dead.

“Faith and hope are the last things to go,” he said. “I won’t lose mine until they turn his body over to me.”

Rescuers – many miners themselves – had been careful not to trigger further explosions as they dug without the aid of heavy equipment for days in hopes of finding survivors or the remains of those killed.

They were ordered to stop their efforts on Friday, however, amid concerns their own lives could be in danger from the air inside the mine, near San Juan Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of the US border at Eagle Pass, Texas.

Garcia said conditions inside the mine would likely improve enough for rescuers to return in about two days to the area where they had already been working to search for bodies.

The announcement came hours after teams of experts began painstakingly drilling holes above the collapsed mine to release the toxic gases below.

Labour Secretary Francisco Salazar said he would work with Grupo Mexico and the state government to ensure the families of those killed each receive a new home.