Four dead in mine horror
Michael Platt
Calgary Sun
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Kimberley (British Columbia):
Four people are dead today after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest at the decommissioned Sullivan mine in Kimberley.
A government official who didn’t want to be identified said it appeared someone working in the mine called 911 with a report of a person hurt in the shaft.
When paramedics arrived, they too were overcome and suffered suspected cardiac arrest, the official said.
A spokesman for Bill Bennett, minister of state for mines, said Bennett and Health Minister George Abbott would fly to the small mountain community.
“They’re flying in to oversee, just to find out what happened,” Jake Jacobs said from Victoria.
A spokeswoman for the B.C. Ambulance Service, Susan Dolinski, said she had no details except that an ambulance paramedic team had responded to a call from the mine.
Mayor Jim Ogilvie of Kimberley told CTV Newsnet “… there’s a very serious situation occurred at that particular point and several people have been transferred to hospital.”
He said he understood something happened with a pumping station that transfers acid water either into or out of the mine.
”I understand that there is someone who was in a very serious situation and three other people went to help him and they as a result of doing so are in serious difficulty,” Ogilvie said.
No one from Teck Cominco which owns the decommissioned mine, was immediately available for comment.
May 17, 2006
Michael Platt
Calgary Sun
_________
Kimberley (British Columbia):
Four people are dead today after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest at the decommissioned Sullivan mine in Kimberley.
A government official who didn’t want to be identified said it appeared someone working in the mine called 911 with a report of a person hurt in the shaft.
When paramedics arrived, they too were overcome and suffered suspected cardiac arrest, the official said.
A spokesman for Bill Bennett, minister of state for mines, said Bennett and Health Minister George Abbott would fly to the small mountain community.
“They’re flying in to oversee, just to find out what happened,” Jake Jacobs said from Victoria.
A spokeswoman for the B.C. Ambulance Service, Susan Dolinski, said she had no details except that an ambulance paramedic team had responded to a call from the mine.
Mayor Jim Ogilvie of Kimberley told CTV Newsnet “… there’s a very serious situation occurred at that particular point and several people have been transferred to hospital.”
He said he understood something happened with a pumping station that transfers acid water either into or out of the mine.
”I understand that there is someone who was in a very serious situation and three other people went to help him and they as a result of doing so are in serious difficulty,” Ogilvie said.
No one from Teck Cominco which owns the decommissioned mine, was immediately available for comment.
May 17, 2006
