Despair, anger, dwindling hope after Turkey coal mine fire
"Enough for the life for
me!" yelled one woman -- her arms flailing, tears running down her
cheeks -- according to video from Turkish broadcaster DHA. "Let this
mine take my life, too!"
As she was pulled away, she added, "Enough is enough."
Sadly, the torment for her and many others isn't over.
Yes, rescuers did save at
least 88 miners in the frantic moments after a power transformer blew
up Tuesday during shift change at the mine in the western Turkish city
of Soma, sparking a choking fire deep inside.
But another 274 are known
dead, according to Turkey's Natural Disaster and Emergency Coordination
Directorate. Those who underwent autopsies died of carbon monoxide
poisoning, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.
There is every expectation that number will grow.
Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday as many as 120 more were trapped inside
the mine, though that was before rescue crews grimly hurried a series of
stretchers -- at least some clearly carrying corpses -- past the
waiting crowd.
As helicopters buzzed
overheard and flags flew at half-staff, police and rescue workers were
everywhere on the scene Wednesday night. But for most, there was
precious little they could do.
The smoke rose from
openings in the ground showed the continuing dangers both to those
trapped and anyone who dared try to get them. Rescue volunteer Mustafa
Gursoy told the CNN team at the mine that conditions inside the mine
were abominable -- hot, smoky and filled with carbon monoxide.
Authorities worked to
pump in good air into the mine, so they could get in. However, as Davitt
McAteer, a former top U.S. mine safety official points out, sending in
oxygen likely would "increase the likelihood that the fire would grow
and continue to put those miners at risk."
These stiff challenges
notwithstanding, rescuers haven't given up hope that some miners reached
emergency chambers stocked with gas masks and air.
"If they could reach
those emergency rooms and reach their gas masks and close the doors and
protect those emergency areas from the poison gas, then they could
survive," Gursoy said. "It's possible. We are ready for anything."
But Yildiz, speaking earlier, said "hopes are diminishing" of rescuing anyone yet inside the mine.
Veysel Sengul has already given up. The miner knew that four of his friends -- at least -- are dead.
"It's too late," said Sengul. "There's no more hope."
The trauma from what
already looks like the worst mine disaster in Turkish history has left
Soma and the rest of Turkey in shock and, in some cases, in anger. The
latest death toll already tops a mining accident in the 1990s that took
260 lives.
Even as officials in the
United States and elsewhere offered their condolences to his people,
Erdogan found himself on the defensive.
Opposition politician
Ozgur Ozel from the Manisa region had filed a proposal in late April to
investigate Turkish mines after repeated deadly accidents.
In some incidents three
people died, in others, five, said opposition spokesman Aykut Erdogdu.
And Ozel wanted to get to the bottom of the deaths.
Several dozen members of
opposition parties signed on to his proposal, but the conservative
government overturned it. Some of its members publicly lampooned it, he
said.
Erdogan questioned Ozel's version, and said the mine had passed safety inspections as recently as March.
The mine, owned by SOMA
Komur Isletmeleri A.S., underwent regular inspections in the past three
years, two of them this March, Turkey's government said. Inspectors
reported no violation of health and safety laws.
The company has taken down its regular website and replaced it with a single Web page in all black containing a message of condolence.
Not everyone in Soma, at
least, has sided with Erdogan, who canceled a trip to Albania to tour
the rescue effort and speak to relatives of dead and injured miners.
He was met by a chorus
of jeers as well as chants of "Resign Prime Minister!" while walking
through the city Wednesday, according to DHA video.
Video from that network,
social media messages and pictures posted to Twitter showed hundreds
participating in anti-government protests in Istanbul and Ankara, with
police answering in some cases with water cannons and tear gas.
While not focused on
mine safety, such demonstrations railing against Erdogan and his
government have been commonplace in Turkey in recent months, as has the
police responding with water cannons and tear gas.
In the nation's capital
of Ankara, some called for silent demonstration to "stand for humanity."
Others left black coffins in front of the Energy Ministry and the Labor
and Social Security ministry buildings.
That grim symbol speaks to the sadness permeating Turkey, whatever one's political bent.
For Sengul, the miner
waiting by the tunnel entrance for more of his friends to emerge, the
mourning may go on much longer than the three days ordered by Erdogan.
After what's happened, he said, he'll never work in a mine again.
