29 Men Perish in New Zealand Mine Disaster

A remote coal mine on New Zealand's west coast has suffered a second explosion that is believed to have taken the lives of the 29 miners that have been trapped there since last week.

The tragic news of the second blast comes five days after the initial explosion on Friday in the Pike River Mine near Greymouth on the country’s South Island. Authorities say the latest explosion that occurred around 2:30pm local time has left no hope for the 29 men trapped.

"There was another explosion at the mine. It was extremely severe," superintendent Gary Knowles announced to a barrage of reporters. "Based on expert evidence I have been given... it is our belief that no one has survived and everyone has perished." He added, “I was at the mine myself when this actually occurred and the blast was horrific, just as severe as the first blast and we're currently now moving into recovery phase.”

District Mayor of the Greymouth area, Tony Kokshoorn, said the cause of the blast, "was the build-up over the last five days of the gases […] A lethal mixture ignited the entire mine.”

Those presumed dead from the mine disaster include 24 New Zealanders, two Australians (William Joynson, 49, and Joshua Ufer, 25, both from Queensland), two Britons and a South African. The victims of the blasts range in age from a 17-year-old on his first shift to a 62-year-old veteran miner.

Families of the miners were taken aside and told of their loved ones’ fate. District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said, "They don't know what to do. They just sobbed openly, just fell to the floor.”

After hearing the devastating news, some of the miners' relatives had to be taken away by ambulance. Following the initial shock, the police were met with anger from the families who had waited for five agonizing days for a rescue effort that never came.

New Zealand Prime Minster John Key told the public in a press conference that search and rescue workers were close to going down the mine before the second explosion although earlier stop-start rescue efforts had inched forward in the mine to reveal a toxic cocktail of dangerous gases and very small levels of oxygen.

Lawrie Drew, a father of 21-year-old miner Zen who was trapped in the mine, said families thought they were about to get good news when they were summoned together privately by police.

"Well, we thought they were going in for a rescue mobilization and we got told to hush up and then they told us a second explosion took place," Mr. Drew said.

"That's when people got up and started yelling abuse, saying 'you had the window of opportunity five days ago, why didn't you take it?'." He added families did not understand why the police had run the operation, rather than mining experts.

“There were people just shouting out; anger,” Mayor Kokshoorn reported.

Police were met with the rage from grief-stricken families due to the fact that the dangerous gases had been allowed to build up again,which caused the second, fatal explosion in the mine. Mayor Kokshoorn says families had directed anger towards police, but "now they are just trying to console each other."

"This is the West Coast's darkest hour,” he said. “It doesn't get worse than this.”

Pike River Mine manager Peter Whittall reportedly broke down as he delivered the grim news to the families in telling them there had been a massive secondary explosion "worse than the first one" and that no one was expected to have survived. Whittall told reporters the second blast highlighted the great dangers of sending rescuers into the mine prematurely.

"[We told the families that] the rescue teams would be putting their lives gravely at risk," he explained. "And while we were there, exactly what we said would happen, happened.” He added, "The only thing that's going to make matters worse ... is that people were alive after the first blast.”

In an attempt to alleviate some pain and suffering, a mine safety expert has come forth with a message that he said he hopes will give the families of the miners some comfort. He believes that the 29 men down the mine would’ve been unconscious at the time of the second explosion.

"The chances are that the men became unconscious with carbon monoxide earlier on and they wouldn't have been affected by this [second] explosion," David Feickert told TVNZ. "The critical thing in terms of the 29 men was the carbon monoxide. ... that is almost certainly what has killed them."

Feickert added he was not surprised by the second explosion, explaining it often happened in such situations. He also pressed the fact that because of the mine's situation, the police had done the right thing in not sending in rescuers.

“They knew that this was very likely to happen because […] there is a clear pattern of this kind of phenomenon," he said.

For the five days between the first and second explosions, nothing was heard from the 29 miners.

As a result of the mine disaster, Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee said efforts would now be made to recover the bodies of those killed. Although no time frame or details have been given, many expect this to take months if not years due to the dangerous levels of toxic and combustible gases that ultimately prevented a rescue mission in the first place.

The New Zealand government’s reaction has been that of announcing November 24’s events as a national tragedy.

Prime Minister John Key had this to say:

New Zealand is a small country, a country where we are our brothers' keepers, so to lose this many brothers at once strikes an agonizing blow. We are a nation in mourning.

On behalf of the people of New Zealand, we send our sympathy to the children who have lost fathers, parents who have lost sons, the wives who have lost husbands, girlfriends who have lost partners, siblings who have lost brothers.

Let us also acknowledge Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom have lost men in this tragedy as well.

The Prime Minister also paid tribute to the rescue teams who had been trying to reach the miners.

"From the moment of first explosion they have spent every waking hour tirelessly working, searching for a way to bring these men home alive," he said.

As a result of the mine tragedy, Government flags are to fly at half mast and the New Zealand cabinet is likely to set up an inquiry to begin Monday as to how such a tragedy could happen, as well as the prevention of a similar situation occurring.

A national memorial service is expected to be held in honor of the 29 miners.