All 21 miners trapped in Sutatausa mines, Cundinamarca, have died, authorities have confirmed

On the morning of Thursday March 16, the Governor of Cundinamarca, nicolas garcia and the president, Gustavo PetroThey deplored the lifeless discovery of the 10 miners still trapped in the mine which exploded on Tuesday evening, in the municipality of Sutatausa (Cundinamarca), due to an accumulation of gas.

This would have been confirmed by the Head of State in a trill, via his usual communication channel, Twitter:

“I have been in communication with Governor Nicolás García, who has just informed me that despite all the efforts rescue teams, unfortunately 21 people lost their lives in this tragic accident in Sutatausa. All my solidarity to their families.”

Rescue operations have continued to advance despite the difficulties caused by the transfer to this area, as it is about an hour from the city center, as reported by the captain Alvaro Farfandepartmental delegate of Cundinamarca firefighters in the village cajon cajon.

However,

Before the latest discovery, National risk management confirmed that 10 of the 11 bodies reported as deceased had been found. Despite the rain, relief agencies continue to work to pull the workers’ bodies from the rubble.

The state of the survivors will be known with the official medical report, for now they have been transferred to a care center. .

“Rescuers have already had contact with the dead, we have rescued six, but they have already arrived where they are. Reality shows that every passing minute is less oxygen timebecause they are 900 meters away deep, ”explained García on the morning of this Wednesday in an interview with Radio Blue.

For his part, the CEO of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD), Javier Pava Sánchez, made new statements to the media in which he expressed his sadness for the lives lost, but also assured that from this entity they will continue to work until the last no one is removed from the tunnels.

“Until we rescue the last miner who is trapped inside the mines, we will continue the search work,” Pava said.

In addition, he reported that the entity has activated all its fronts so that these operations are carried out as quickly as possible and thus save as many lives as possible. Also, to protect the lives of rescuers and not regret more deaths in the midst of rescue actions.

“After the explosion, all the operating procedures for these cases were activated in order to guarantee security rescuers, who are the people who carry out operational tasks inside the mine, as well as all response organizations who have activities outside the mine to take care of people which are extractedas well as the injured and the dead,” said Pava Sánchez.

Thus, although the teams of the National Agency for Mines (ANM), the Fire Brigade, the Red Cross, the Civil Defense and the Departmental Risk Cell are continuing the rescue work, the departmental president regretted how low are the chances to succeed in saving the 10 people who are still inside.

The emergency it was reported around 8:15 p.m. on March 14 and since then relief agencies have been working to locate the relative of 30 workers which were trapped in the mines, after the loud bang, produced what, until now, is considered a gas accumulation.

“It’s an accumulation of gas, because we know that these mines were full of gas inside. methane, In addition, there is coal dust, this, in addition to being toxic, is highly explosive and this obviously caused this emergency as such, ”said fire captain Álvaro Farfán, in a interview with the aforementioned media.

In the first hours of the rescue, García announced that a unified command post (PMU) to be able to deal with the situation: “At this time, the PMU has already been installed, and from the Dptal risk management system, we have activated the @GrupoPONALSAR, the fire brigade and the ambulance. Thanks to the CRUE, the personal mine rescue zone of @ANMColombia (sic) is in the area,” he said.

And, around 8 a.m., the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro regretted the news and mentioned being contact the government to add efforts in the search:

“What happened in the Sutatausa mine was an unfortunate tragedy, where 11 people died. We are doing everything we can with the government of Cundinamarca to save those trapped alive. A hug of solidarity to the victims and to their loved ones”, we read on his usual communication channel, Twitter.

At which, despite the bad prognosis, the governor decided continue to coordinate the rescue with the emergency services, firefighters and mine rescue of Ubaté, who had to go to the area, because, as Captain Álvaro Farfán, departmental delegate of the Cundinamarca firefighters, clarified, there is no continuous presence of these teams in the area.

“We continue from the PMU in all the articulation processes and through the coordination of the specialized mine rescue group to be able to carry out all the actions and to be able to rescue those people who are currently trapped in the mine as soon as possible,” Governor García said.

The mines (El Hoyo, El Lucero and La Esperanza, etc.) are legalSo, in principle, the accident was not due to dubious practices; However, an analysis, carried out by experts, on what happened is already awaited.

In short, there was “a chain reaction, an explosion occurred in one of the mines and this affected the other four (…) We are talking about five mines. When they had 30 miners who developed coal mining” of which only seven succeeded in come out on their own.

“The report at noon regarding the situation presented in the municipality of Sutatausa is of 7 people who left on their own; two people who were saved alive; Unfortunately, we have found 11 bodies of deceased miners and we continue to work to save the 10 workers who are still trapped,” Governor García reported, adding that more than 115 rescuers are on the groundworking with the national government to save as many lives as possible.

Whereas, of the nine people who were able to get out of the mine, all they are stable6 they are already licensed and the other three would be able to return home in the afternoon, according to the latter part of the Ubate Hospital.

Like the three rescuers who presented health problems due to inhale gases inside the mine, in addition to the fact that “the relatives of the victims receive psychosocial support“, underlined the governor.