And the

SAGO COAL MINE DISASTER

By Parisa Wootton

What is lightning?

Lightning is a discharge of atmospheric

electricity. It is triggered by a buildup of

differing charges within a cloud.

Why is lightning dangerous?

Lightning is dangerous because it can

start forest fires. It kills at least

200 people in the United states a year. More

people die from lightning than hurricanes or

tornadoes.

Facts about lightning!

• Each second there are 50 to 100 lightning strikes world wide.

• Daytime lightning is hard to see in hazy weather and in local sun.

• Most lightning strikes are 2 to 3 miles long and carry a current of 10000 Amps at 100 million volts.

• Lightning “crawlers” or lets just say spider lightning can travel over 35 miles.

How to stay safe from lightning!

• Ditch the golf cart!• Don’t lie down• If you are in a group spread out with at least 20

feet between each person• If you are in water get out!• Stay away from tall trees • Don’t wave you metal walking stick at the sky in

rage!• Don’t use your ipod

The Sago Coal mine

In the early morning of January 2nd 2006 inSago, lightning struck at a Cole mine. It ignited an explosion inside the Cole mine. It was an unimaginable strike ofmisfortune. 13 miners were trapped 250 feetbelow ground. The rescue of these minerswas delayed due to the lethal air quality inside themine shaft due to the initial explosion. It took 36 hours for the first sign of the miners. This created an enormous wake of mourning in the community. This happened at approximately 6:30am

The Sago Coal mine

This unfortunate event could have been prevented if thesafety standards in the mine been better. The air hadhigh levels of carbon monoxide and methane in it. Theminers had an hour of oxygen in their safety tanks whichthey had to share.

The rescue team dug holes in the ground and put videocameras and microphones to locate the minersunfortunately there was no sign of life . They also used arobot which was unsuccessful.They drilled a third hole but encountered ground water.This was all discouraging to the rescue efforts.

Miscommunication

The company reported to the families thatout of the 13 miners 12 were alive this report gave the families hope. But this was not true 1 only survived and the restdied due to lack of oxygen and the timetaken to find them.The grief of the families was unimaginableas the search and rescue took 3 days.

The Sago coal mine

Only one person survived and his nameis Randal.McCloy he wrote a message toeach of the victims families telling them that“about three weeks before the explosion,towards the end of our shift Junior Tollerand I found a gas pocket while drilling a bolt hole in the mine roof. Our detector confirmedthe presence of methane”.Had the company fixed theproblems in the mine the explosion would not havehappened.

Quiz time!!!

• What is two of the stay safe rules?

• Why is lightning dangerous?

• Tell me something about The Sago Cole mine

• What is lightning?

• Tell me one fact about the sago coal mine

• Tell me one fact about lightning