Society

5 arrested for fatal coal mine fire in C China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-01 01:32

ZHENGZHOU - Five people have been formally arrested for being implicated in a coal mine fire that killed 25 earlier last month in central China's Henan province, local authorities said Wednesday.

The March 15 fire started with electric cables in a main pit of Dongxing Coal Mining Co in Xinmi city in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, when 31 workers were working underground. Six were later rescued.

The five arrested included a company investor Fu Mancang, legal representative Fu Xiao, and three senior mine executives Bai Xiaobo, Li Bingcan and Wang Shuangbin, a spokesman with the Xinmi Municipal People's Procuratorate said late Wednesday.

The five were arrested for allegedly committing "crime of major liability accident," the spokesman said.

Just a day after the deadly fire, four government officials were removed from their posts. They were Su Yingxi, a vice mayor of Xinmi, Fan Ruihui, governor of Niudian township where the mine is located, another township official in charge of work safety, and a deputy director of Xinmi coal mine bureau.

The Xinmi municipal government also dismissed three work safety inspectors deployed by the municipal and township governments to the mine.

The mine, with a designed annual output capacity of 150,000 tons, had been operating illegally, investigations found.

Rescuers and work safety officials earlier said the victims had no oxygen tanks when the fire started and were quickly overcome by the enormous amount of carbon monoxide.

Coal mines in China are legally obliged to equip workers with oxygen tanks. These could help a miner to survive up to 45 minutes in case of emergencies, work safety officials said.