New Zealand Prime Minister John Key vowed yesterday “no stone would be left unturned” finding why 29 men perished in a mine explosion that plunged the nation into mourning.
He warned it could take months to recover the bodies of workers entombed in the Pike River colliery after New Zealand’s worst mining disaster for almost a century and said grieving relatives were right to question why it happened.
As flags across the country flew at half-mast and church bells tolled, Key told the stricken families that all New Zealanders were “deeply sorry” for their loss and he was determined to establish why safety standards failed their loved ones. The police, the Labour Department and Pike River Coal would all be involved.
PHOTO: EPA
“This is an inquiry that will leave no stone unturned to ensure that they get their answers as to why their men are not coming home,” he told reporters.
The prime minister traveled to Greymouth on the South Island to comfort the bereaved, whose fading hopes after an explosion on Friday were snuffed out by an even bigger blast on Wednesday.
“The nation is grieving and mourning alongside them,” he said.
Key said after a somber meeting with the families that he detected resignation, rather than the anger seen a day before, when relatives shouted at police and collapsed in anguish after being told their kin were dead.
He said the main priority was to see the men’s bodies returned.
“I had quite a number of families come up to me and ask me to make sure we did everything we possibly could to make sure that their loved ones’ could be removed, so they could have the appropriate funeral services,” Key said.
However, a lethal cocktail of volatile gases remained in the mine and Key said this would delay recovery attempts. International experience had shown the operation could take “quite some months,” he said.
Key also praised the rescue efforts, which some relatives of the miners have criticized.
The Pike River Coal board is to meet today to discuss its options.
Chief executive Peter Whittall said he favored getting the colliery going again: “It’s not like the mine was a big scary place that was waiting to kill them ... The mine was where we worked, it was where we went to every day, we understood it.”
“Inherently, coal mining is dangerous, we live with, that’s all part of the way we live here on the west coast,” Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.
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