New Pike River theory claims miners may have survived explosions

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Pike River Recovery Agency staff open and walk through doors at the 170m seal. (Video first published December 17, 2019)

Two Pike River fathers say they’ve uncovered evidence that shows people may have survived the first and even the second explosion at the West Coast mine.

Dean Dunbar and Bernie Monk, who both lost sons in the 2010 mine disaster, have been investigating the circumstances of the two explosions that killed 29 men.

They have been helped by Dunedin electrical engineer Richard Healey, who has been investigating Pike River for 18 months.

Healey said he was putting forward a credible scenario, which was backed up by data, that some miners could have survived the first explosion, found the break in the fresh air line, and had access to water.

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Pike River fathers Bernie Monk, left, and Dean Dunbar, right with electrical expert Richard Healey.

* Pike River advocates have 'black box' data police say was never saved

He said he also had evidence that showed the second explosion happened in the mine’s drift (access tunnel) five days after the first, and any survivors would have been protected from it by rockfall.

Healey was a project manager at Otago lines company Delta before he publicly revealed the poor state of the company’s power poles.

Dunbar and Monk held a four-hour meeting for Pike River families and Pike River Recovery Agency bosses in Greymouth on Wednesday to present Healey’s findings.

Healey said his report was backed up by evidence from SCADA data, known as the “black box of Pike River”, electrical data obtained from Westpower, and from investigators and sources close to the mine.

Photos of the 29 deceased miners are shown on display at the public memorial on the access road to the Pike River Mine.

He said he looked at a set of graphs that were presented to the royal commission into the disaster and immediately thought the commission “got it completely wrong”.

To help prove his findings, he commissioned a protection engineer to produce a report, which showed there was an earlier electrical fault deep inside the mine.

The commission was told that one cable had failed and within seven thousandths (0.007) of a second the two others also failed.

“That has coloured the thinking of people investigating this to think in terms of one cataclysmic event.”

The earlier event actually happened 0.65 of a second before the second event – the one considered by the royal commission.

Healey said it pointed to the disaster being caused by a “rolling explosion”, which would have had a higher chance of survivors than one big explosion.

He said he could tell from the electrical data that the second fault was consistent with impact damage from rockfall. That meant the rockfall blocking the drift happened during the first explosion – stopping any potential survivors from getting out – and not after the second explosion as previously thought.

Dean Dunbar’s son Joseph Dunbar was killed in the 2010 Pike River mine explosion.

Daniel Rockhouse and Russell Smith survived the explosion with only minor injuries and were able to walk out because they were not trapped by the rockfall.

Healey said he also had an expert’s report that found the compressed air line going into the mine could have been broken anywhere between 1500 metres and 2400m. The latter was beyond the rockfall so could have provided fresh air to any survivors.

Cameras put down boreholes also showed empty self-rescuer boxes and fully intact plastic and wooden items deep inside the mine, he said.

The Pike River Recovery Agency is recovering the mine drift to try find evidence of what caused the explosions for an ongoing police investigation.

Chief executive Dave Gawn declined to comment on the findings, and said he attended Wednesday’s meeting “as an observer”.

“There’s been a lot of work gone into the report that has been put forward” he said.

'So there's a possibility, even if only a very small one, that there might be some human remains there,' Andrew Little said on Friday.

Steve Rose, whose stepson Stu Mudge was killed in the mine, said an astounding level of detail was revealed at the meeting.

It was “entirely feasible” the rockfall happened during the first explosion, and could explain why any survivors did not get out.

He wanted the 100-year embargo on the documents gathered by the royal commission to be lifted, so they could re-examine parts “with the information we have now”.

Dunbar, whose 17-year-old son Joseph died in the mine, said agency staff were close to reaching a part of the drift known as Pit Bottom in Stone, which held electrical equipment. It is believed the equipment could hold vital information to back up Healey’s findings, he said.

“We have one chance at this, and we must get it right.”

Agency staff, which includes miners, have been trained by police on how to handle forensic evidence.

A police spokesperson said police had already been briefed on Healey’s report.

“The scene examination at the mine continues and with the police investigation ongoing we are unable to comment on the findings,” she said.