Posted on 08/06/2010 7:56:25 PM PDT by markomalley
BEIJING — A fire in gold mine in eastern China killed at least 14 workers and trapped eight underground, a state work safety official said Saturday.
The fire that broke out Friday afternoon at the Lingnan Gold Mine in Zhaoyuan city in eastern Shandong province had been put out but rescuers were still working to free those underground, according to the chief of the state work safety administration's policy law and regulation department. He identified himself by his surname as Li.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency said the fire initially trapped 50 workers, but all but the eight had been pulled out as of 8:30 a.m. Saturday. The report said 329 people had been working in the mine.
Of those still trapped underground, rescue workers had made contact with seven of them, Li said. He said there were no serious injuries among the workers who had been rescued.
Li said the fire was caused by an underground cable, and the owner of the mine was in police custody.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Don Blankenship’s fault! sarc\
RIP.
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