Witness to the death of 4 coal workers in Quang Ninh: Strange signs before the explosion

The injured workers are being treated at Quang Ninh General Hospital.

At around 0:20 on April 3, a serious methane gas explosion occurred at the XV5-140 furnace mirror No. 2, the tunnel excavation workshop 2 of Thong Nhat Coal Company - TKV (Cam Pha City, Quang Ninh). After more than 3 hours of rescue efforts, 4 dead workers were brought out of the scene and 7 other injured workers were taken to the Quang Ninh General Hospital for emergency treatment.

Lying on the recovery bed, worker Dam Van Doi (born in 1993, from Cao Bang) said he was one of the 7 lucky people to survive the methane gas explosion. According to Doi, before the incident, he and a group of workers were working the 3rd shift in the mine.

Worker Dam Van Doi is one of the 7 lucky people to survive the methane gas explosion.

At work, Mr. Doi was assigned to go out to get more supplies. After walking about 200 meters, he heard a loud explosion and was immediately thrown under the coal conveyor belt and passed out.

A moment later, he woke up and realized he was still alive, so he tried to grope around in the dark tunnel to find a way out because the tunnel was pitch black, black dust covered his vision, and moreover, Doi was thrown away after the explosion, causing his helmet and flashlight to fall off.

Mr. Doi was thrown onto the coal conveyor belt, causing lung injury.

"Normally when I go to work I find the furnace hot, but today I found the air inside cold, I thought I had a fever. Only when the incident happened did I realize the cold was caused by methane gas," said Mr. Doi.

Lying next to Mr. Doi's bed was worker Nguyen Quoc Khanh (38 years old, from Thai Nguyen, a worker in the production team) who was also shocked as he recounted the incident: After moving materials into the mine excavation area, he and a group of workers moved out. After 100 meters, everyone heard an explosion. The gas pressure threw the group of workers about 30 meters away in the mine. Fortunately, no one in his group was seriously injured, but their helmets, flashlights, and protective boots were all blown away after the explosion.

Mr. Khanh and a group of workers were thrown about 30 meters in the mine.

Worker Nguyen Van Thanh (45 years old, from Hai Duong, transport unit) recounted that at that time, he and 6 other workers were going down the mine to shovel coal. When they had gone 140 meters into the mine, an explosion occurred, hot wind from inside blew strongly, knocking Thanh and the others down. The strong wind and coal dust caused protective gear and lamps to fly everywhere.

"It took us more than 2 minutes to figure out where the exit was because the dust was so thick that we could not see the way out. We could only run as fast as we could," said Thanh.

Initial investigation determined that the cause of the incident was a methane gas fire that killed four workers. The victims included: TVB (born in 1989, residing in Luc Hon commune, Binh Lieu, Quang Ninh), NTL (born in 1987, residing in Doan Hung, Phu Tho), TVN (born in 1990, residing in Pho Yen, Thai Nguyen) and LVH (born in 1991, residing in Hoa An, Cao Bang).