maaxx.ca

Liputan6.com, Ottawa – Deep in the small town of Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, a methane explosion suddenly erupts from a seam of coal Food at the Westray mine and started a massive fire on May 9, 1992 at 5:18 a.m. local time.

Within seconds, a huge ball of fire swept through the mine, kicking up coal dust that exploded with a thunderous roar.

A blue-gray flash lit up the pre-dawn sky. Homes more than a kilometer away shook as shock waves swept through the earth.

In all, there were 26 people underground at the time, most of them in the last hours of the changes four days, reported from Radio CanadaFriday (5/5/2023).

“Westray’s story is a complex mosaic of acts, omissions, mistakes, incompetence, apathy, cynicism, ignorance and neglect,” Judge Peter Richard said in his report. about the explosion and fire at a Pictou County coal mine that day.

In fact, Westray’s existence was controversial from the start.

In July 1991, Liberal MP Bernie Boudreau sent a letter to Nova Scotia Labor Minister Leroy Legere, warning him that the new Westray coal mine scheduled to open in two months near Stellarton “has the potential to to be one of the most dangerous in the world”.

However, this was not enough to stop the opening of the Westray mine on September 11, 1991. Nearly 500 guests attended the official opening and local MP, then Revenue Minister Elmer MacKay, arrived from Ottawa to cut the ribbon on the project promising 300 much-needed jobs that would last at least 15 years.

Coal mining is indeed a dangerous job. Between 1838 and 1950, the peak years of coal mining in Pictou County, 246 miners died in similar explosions of methane and coal dust, many of whom worked in the rich seams. Food which became part of Westray’s operations.

Then, between 1866 and 1972, another 330 miners died in another accident. Crushed in the machine, buried under a rock, crushed in a coal car accident.