Father of Pike River miner alleges police set off second explosion
Wednesday, 26 September 2018
Police say there's no evidence a conveyor belt caused the second Pike River mine explosion, but they are still investigating the possibility.
The West Coast coal mine blew up for the second time on November 24, 2010, five days after the first explosion, ruling out any chance any of the 29 men inside were still alive.
Dean Dunbar, who lost his 17-year-old son Joseph in the disaster, claimed he had received leaked documents, created two hours before the second explosion, that suggested officials planned to turn on the conveyor belt.
Dunbar said police had signed off a risk assessment to turn on the conveyor belt to give any potential survivors the chance to ride it out of the mine. He said Pike River Coal management was involved in the rescue effort with police.
**READ MORE:
* Police staff could enter Pike River mine if re-entry is approved
* All options for re-entering Pike River mine deemed possible**
'This is not my theory. This all comes from documents produced by police,' he said.
'I have requested documents and they tell me they don't exist but then I say 'well here it is'. They only release to me what I release to them first.'
He said he had footage that showed the conveyor belt moving at the portal before explosion debris came out of the mine tunnel. Police told him experts had concluded the belt was moved by the force of the explosion, but Dunbar said he had experts who said the opposite.
He said he had seen photographs and footage showing the conveyor belt was undamaged by the first explosion but 'blown to bits' in the second, meaning it was likely to be the ignition point.
Police have refused to release the decision document officer Grant Nicholls prepared about the use of the conveyor belt before the explosion. Nicholls is now the deputy commissioner of the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services in Australia.
A New Zealand police spokeswoman said 'based on our current knowledge', police had no information to suggest the conveyor belt was switched on after the first explosion.
'We have also spoken to staff involved at the time and none are aware of any decision to allow the conveyor belt to be switched on as the risk of explosion had not been properly addressed.'
The possibility the conveyor was switched on after the first explosion was first raised by some family members in 2017, she said. Police had also received several Official Information Act requests on the issue.
'We took the decision to investigate this possibility as the most expeditious way of answering these questions for the families, rather than a lengthy search of several thousand documents which may ultimately provide no conclusion,' the spokeswoman said.
The investigation is continuing.
* Comments on this story have now been closed.