2023-05-07 20:38:07
The Peruvian Public Ministry confirmed the death of 27 people as a result of a fire that occurred inside the Esperanza 1 minelocated in the district of Yanaquihua, in the province of Condesuyos, Arequipa region.
According to the first investigations, the emergency -started around midnight last Friday- was caused by a short circuit in the mine shaft, some 100 meters deep in a straight line.
The fire spread rapidly through the wooden blocks that support the deposit for the extraction of gold, preventing the miners from leaving.
The company responsible for the mine reported that at the start of the incident there were some 48 workers in the tunnel, of which 21 managed to escape the fire and save their lives.
27 dead after fire at gold mine in Peru
At noon this Sunday, it was reported that relatives of the victims, some from Puno, blocked the entrance to the mine at the control booth. Here they placed a van to prevent the exit of other units, in protest against the delay in the rescue efforts and because they are not allowed to enter to witness the search for the bodies.
Hours before, the relatives met at the Yanaquihua police station to gather information on what happened and, at the same time, ask the pertinent authorities to expedite the procedures and procedures for the recovery of the bodies.
Prosecutor Giovanni Matos told RPP Noticias that the work in the Yanaquihua formal mining shaft could be delayed because it must first be determined if the conditions are safe for the personnel who will participate in the search tasks.
Rescue of people trapped in the mine
The mayor of Yanaquihua, James Casquino, said on Saturday that the owner of the mine, Esteban Huamaní Urday, came to the district police station to ask for help and rescue the people who were trapped in the mine.
The local authority also indicated that Civil Defense personnel were present at the point of emergency, but their passage was restricted.
For its part, the Regional Government of Arequipa detailed, in a statement, that health personnel and three ambulances were mobilized to the area to help in the care and rescue work.
It is worth mentioning that it is not ruled out that the number of deaths increases with the passing of the hours, since the calculation of 27 victims was made as a result of the fact that this was the number of people who relieved another group of miners to continue with the gold mining works
During the incident, the flames reached a height of up to 10 meters as they quickly spread through the wooden props – many of them bathed in oil – which helped the fire spread throughout the mine, trapping the miners inside. .
Relatives demand to investigate the mining company
The relatives of the 27 people who died during the fire at the Esperanza 1 mining company, in the Yanaquihua district, demanded that investigations be carried out as soon as possible to determine responsibilities.
“We want justice to be done, that this company (Minera Yanaquihua) be sanctioned, it is not fair that they do not have a contingency plan, in what state do these companies that are supposedly formal work. That the Ministry of Energy and Mines take the actions in the case, there are 27 families. All this is very outrageous, ”said a man who unfortunately lost his brother in the emergency.
It also indicated that upon reaching the area where the incident occurred, they were prevented from advancing towards the mine because the National Police and members of the Public Ministry are already carrying out the procedures and work to recover and remove the bodies.
“This happened on Friday at 11:00 p.m., that is what the report at the police station says and they just put a report at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. What has the company expected? That makes me suspect that they are hiding something. I ask for a drastic sanction to this mining company”, he affirmed.
“The working conditions are apparently legal”
James Casquino, mayor of Yanaquihua, assured that the company in charge of the Esperanza 1 mine is a formal company that has its documents in order. However, he pointed out that the authorities should investigate the causes of what happened.
“The (work) conditions are apparently legal, but let’s wait for better investigations of the case. What we most want is, in the most immediate way, the support so that they can rescue if there were more people in the place, ”he said in statements to RPP’s ‘Amplification of News’.
The Yanaquihua mayor’s authority stressed that they have requested more help to fly over the area and find out if there are still survivors in the sinkhole, since so far there are three workers who were rescued alive, the same ones who are being treated in the city of Aplao.
“We are requesting that specialized personnel go to the area so that they can review if there are still any corpses and see
if someone can be rescued. As the area is extremely wild and it is a highly specialized issue because it is a fire in a hole so that it can be confirmed if there are still some people, ”he added.
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