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New Zealand holds memorial service for miners killed in blast

02 December 2010 18:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. New Zealand today held a national remembrance service for the 29 coalminers killed in an explosion last month, APA reports quoting guardian.co.uk website.
A line of 29 black-draped tables each bore a miner’s helmet, lamp and name.
The Pike River mine was rocked by an explosion on 19 November, trapping the men underground. A second major blast, five days later, dashed hopes that any had survived. Their bodies have still not been recovered.
Two more explosions have occurred since, including one on Sunday that shot flames into the air, indicating that a raging coal fire is continuing to burn.
More than 10,000 mourners attended the open-air service under a sunny sky at Greymouth’s Omoto Racecourse, on the South Island.
People across New Zealand paused for a two-minute silence before the service. Flags on government buildings nationwide flew at half mast.
Relatives of the victims placed photos, tributes and personal items â€“ including clothing, a rugby ball, surfboards, a guitar and a cricket bat â€“ alongside the miners’ helmets on the tables.
Men, women and children, many weeping, filed quietly past the tables to pay their respects.
"In a very real sense, those men are with us because of those tables," Rev Tim Mora, who led the service, told the crowd.
Grieving father Lawrie Drew said he would not feel a sense of closure until the body of his son, Zen, had been recovered. "It’s not closure for me. Not until I see the body," he told the Stuff news website.
The New Zealand prime minister, John Key, said the nation’s 4 million people were standing behind the region’s tight-knit community.
"We hoped ... they would emerge from the depths of the Earth," he told the mourners. "But they never came home."
Recovery teams started a jet engine known as the "gag" machine overnight yesterday, blowing inert gases and water vapour into the burning mine in an attempt to put out the underground fire.
Police Superintendent Gary Knowles told reporters that, once the explosive gases were expelled, work to cool soaring temperatures inside the mine would begin, allowing the miners’ bodies to be recovered. However, mine experts have warned it would be a slow process, he said.
Foreign diplomats, including high commissioners from Australia, Britain and South Africa, who lost citizens in the disaster, were also at the service.