Blast Kills 10 Coal Miners in China

BEIJING (AP) - A gas explosion killed 10 coal miners in China's northwest, a local official said Tuesday, adding to a mounting death toll in China's mining industry.

The blast occurred at about 9 p.m. on Saturday in Hoboksar, a town in the Xinjiang region near the Russian border, said Na Cike, an official of the county government.

The cause is under investigation, he said.

China's mines are the world's deadliest, killing thousands of miners every year in fires, floods and explosions blamed on lax safety enforcement and lack of equipment.

In the deadliest recent disaster, 81 tin miners were killed by underground flooding in southern China on July 17. Officials of the mine and the county where it is located have been arrested.

China Charges 15 Over Mine Accident Cover-Up

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police have arrested four local officials and 11 others suspected of covering up a flooded tin mine disaster which killed at least 80 in southwestern China region of Guangxi in July, state media said on Saturday.

Four top officials of Nandan County, including Communist Party secretary Wan Ruizhong, have been charged with ''intentionally covering up an accident,'' the People's Daily said.

Eleven mine officials, including the owner of the mines, face charges of ``responsibility for a major safety accident,'' the newspaper said.

There was no word on when their trials would begin.

The arrests mark the end of the central government's probe into the cause of the July 17 accident but an investigation into possible graft and mafia involvement in the case continues, the paper said.

The State Council, China's cabinet, sent special teams to investigate the mines in early August after state media carried reports of officials bribing survivors to keep quiet and threatening journalists -- at least once with guns and knives.

Investigators found mine owner Li Dongming had ``secretly pulled out and cremated two of the corpses on July 26,'' the paper said.

One more body remains missing after workers spent weeks pumping out 300,000 tonnes of water from the mines, it said.

The disaster and cover-up became a national controversy after local journalists leaked reports estimating that there may have been up to 400 trapped.

The accident also fueled a debate on the role of China's state-controlled media when the official Xinhua news agency, usually the first to publicize major accidents, maintained a cold silence for weeks.

Investigators found mismanagement, illegal mining, and ill-planned explosions turned the mines into what state media have called a ``small reservoir,'' the paper said.

China's mining industry, the world's biggest, has an appalling safety record.

Last year, 5,300 deaths were officially reported nationwide in mining accidents. The official toll this year is around 3,000.

14 Die in Romania Mine Explosion

By HORATIU HULEA, Associated Press Writer

VULCAN, Romania (AP) - A methane gas explosion deep in a coal mine in western Romania killed at least 14 miners early Tuesday and injured two others in the country's worst mining accident in more than a decade.

One of the two injured miners was flown by helicopter to the western city of Timisoara for treatment of serious burns.

``At about 3:30 a.m., methane gas was ignited at the Vulcan mine,'' said Paulian Furtuna, spokesman for the mine company, adding that ``14 people lost their lives.''

He said the cause of the explosion was not immediately known.

The explosion happened in the Vulcan mine, Romania's main coalfield, some 185 miles northwest of the capital, Bucharest, during the night shift, when miners were working to extract coal at a depth of 1,115 feet.

The initial evidence suggested that the explosion occurred as the miners were blowing up rock. It happened in a shaft next to where the miners were working, the government said in a statement.

Experts from the National Institute for Mining Security and Anti-Explosion Protection planned to enter the mine on Wednesday to investigate the causes of the accident. Prime Minister Adrian Nastase ordered an investigation led by two cabinet ministers.

Rescue workers retrieved 10 bodies by midmorning Tuesday, said Aurelian Serafinceanu, the prefect for the county of Hunedoara where Vulcan is located.

Officials said the miners were aged 20 and 43 and had 18 children between them. There was no word on whether other miners had survived and were trapped below ground.

The brother of one of the miners who died wept outside the mine.

``I can't believe it,'' said Daniel Cozma. ``I thought he was on vacation and now I hear he went down the mine.'' His brother, Paul Cozma, 29, left behind a wife and 3-year-old child.

Private television station Pro-TV showed bodies wrapped in gray tarpaulin and colored blankets being pulled out of the mine and put in a truck.

President Ion Iliescu sent his condolences to grieving families and urged authorities to give moral and financial support to the families of the dead miners.

Dozens of miners refused to go to work following the accident.

It was the worst such accident since 1989, when an explosion killed 29 miners at the coal mine. In 1986, 57 miners died at the same mine.

Report: Chinese Blast Kills 46

BEIJING (AP) - Rescuers have found 46 bodies in a coal mine explosion in eastern China, and a rescue official said twice that number might be dead, the state Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

There were 105 miners underground at the time of the blast Sunday in the mine in Xuzhou, a city in the eastern province of Jiangsu, Xinhua said. Thirteen were rescued.

Citing an unidentified official, Xinhua said that ``without a miracle,'' the death toll could rise to 92.

The mine was closed in June because it lacked safety equipment, and it illegally reopened this month, according to a local official.

Mine owner Zhuang Jincai has been detained by police, Xinhua said.

``Those who are still trapped in the mine have no hope of survival,'' Xinhua said, citing unidentified sources.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with thousands of miners killed every year by explosion, fire and underground floods.

Xinhua said the blast in the Xuzhou mine might have occurred in the coal bed or gas that collected in a tunnel.

Earlier Stories
China Coal Mine Explosion Kills 38 (July 23)
China Coal Mine Explosion Kills 16 (July 23)
Blast Kills 16 Miners in China (July 23)
Explosion Traps 93 Miners in China (July 22)

Little Hope for 39 Trapped in China Prison Mine

BEIJING (Reuters) - Rescue workers have virtually given up hope of saving 39 convicts toiling in a prison-run coal mine in southwestern China who are feared dead after the pit filled with water last week, officials said Monday.

``There is little hope that they are alive. They may have drowned immediately when water poured into the pit,'' an official from the Sichuan Security Supervision Bureau told Reuters.

The Qinglongzui mine, operated by a prison near Yibin in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was flooded suddenly on Friday, the official said.

The official Xinhua news agency said Friday rescuers were working round the clock to find the 39 miners trapped, but did not identify them as prisoners.

The Sichuan official said all 39 were ``convicted criminals'' and said efforts by rescue workers to pump the water out of the pit were hampered by their inability to find the source of the water still flowing into the mine.

China's law forbids forced labor, but it remains a serious problem in penal institutions and reform-through-labor sentences are meted out through judicial procedures, the State Department said in its 2000 human rights report on China.

China has a dismal coal mine safety record, with more than 5,300 people killed in accidents last year.

Xinhua also reported that an explosion in a small coal mine in Sichuan killed eight miners and trapped seven Sunday. Rescue workers were searching for the workers trapped in the Shilin coal mine in Guang'an county, it said.

State television said emergency crews in the southern province of Guangxi were searching for 29 miners trapped 200 meters (650 feet) underground when a gypsum mine collapsed on Friday.

The Hengda mine in Hepu county only had enough air for the miners to live two more days, it said. The unstable condition of the mine was hampering rescue work.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A methane gas explosion killed eight workers in a mine in eastern Ukraine, the deadliest accident to strike the country's ramshackle coal industry this year, officials said Sunday. Two people were missing.

The blast occurred Saturday evening at the Kirov mine in the coal-rich Donetsk region, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Of the 151 miners working underground at the time, 141 were brought safely to the surface.

Three other miners died Saturday at three separate coal mines in the Donetsk and nearby Luhansk regions, all as a result of violations of safety rules, the ministry said.

It said one miner was electrocuted, another was crushed by a coal combine and the third fatally wounded by a conveyor belt. Ukraine's coal mines are among the world's most dangerous.

About 90 coal workers have died in accidents this year, down from more than 160 over the same period in 2000. An explosion in March 2000 killed 81 workers at a mine in eastern Ukraine.

Earlier Stories
7 Killed in Ukraine Mine Explosion (May 6)

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

Full Coverage In-depth coverage about China Related News Stories · China Steps Up Nuclear Test Preparations -Us Paper - Reuters (May 12, 2001) · Wall Collapses in Western China, 12 People Die - Reuters (May 12, 2001) · Chinese believed preparing for a nuclear weapons test - Washington Times (May 11, 2001) · China, Pakistan Leaders Report Consensus - Reuters (May 11, 2001) · Chinese Crowd Riots After Scuffle - AP (May 11, 2001) More... Opinion & Editorials · US nourished by China's seeds of uncertainty - Asia Times Online (May 11, 2001) · Drive, She Said - Asiaweek (May 11, 2001) · Chinese 'Web Worms' Find Their Own Sort of Truth - Los Angeles Times (May 9, 2001) More... Related Web Sites · China Internet Information Center - government site with news and press releases. Also has reports and position papers, including ones on human rights, Tibet, and arms controls and disarmament. · Falun Dafa - web site of the meditation group that has been banned in China. · Falun Gong Cult - anti-Falun Gong commentary, from the Chinese government-owned China Daily. · Falun Gong: China's Dilemma - CNN in-depth special. · Falun Info Net - news and information on the movement from Falun Gong practitioners. More... Magazine Articles · Lee on China: 'A Chance, a Real Chance to Climb Up' - Fortune (May 11, 2001) · The Right Stuff - Far Eastern Economic Review (May 10, 2001) · China’s Execution, Inc. - Village Voice (May 4, 2001) More... Audio · Detained U.S. academic's wife describes how family is suffering. - CNN (May 8, 2001) · U.S. academic's wife has no idea why her husband was detained - CNN (May 8, 2001) · China Detains U.S. Citizen On Suspicion of Spying - NPR (Apr 20, 2001) More... Video · "China's relations with Venezuela are expanding rapidly" - BBC (Apr 17, 2001) · China's Yellow River 'Technically' Dead - Reuters. (Apr 16, 2001) · Venezuela Welcomes China's President Jiang - Reuters. (Apr 16, 2001) Message Boards · Zhaodaola Internet News Sources · Yahoo! News Search · Yahoo! Asia News · Muzi.com · People's Daily · Sinopolis.com Related Full Coverage · China-US Relations · China - Taiwan Relations · Lai Changxing Case · China Economy · Hong Kong News Yahoo! Categories · China · Chinese Government · Falun Gong More...

BEIJING (AP) - A gas explosion at a coal mine killed at least nine miners in northeastern China and a raging fire was blocking rescue efforts for 45 others who were missing and feared dead, rescue officials said Wednesday.

Hopes were dim that anyone survived after the gas explosion early Tuesday started a fire that engulfed much of the mine near Hegang, said officials at the Lanshan No. 1 Coal Mine in Heilongjiang province.

Rescuers believe they know the location of the missing 45 miners but can't reach them because of the fire.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with thousands of deaths each year in fires, cave-ins and explosions often blamed on inadequate ventilation and safety equipment.

More than 4,800 deaths were reported last year, and still more fatalities may have been concealed by mine operators. The government has been trying to shut down hundreds of small, unlicensed mines that operate without even basic safety equipment.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

BEIJING (Reuters) - Forty seven miners were killed in a gas explosion in a north China coal mine, which local officials said was operating illegally after being closed for safety reasons last year.

Police immediately launched a manhunt for the operator of the mine in Shaanxi province.

Four miners escaped with light injuries after the blast on Saturday and one was still missing, according to the officials in the city of Hancheng.

The officials in the Hancheng Coal Mine Bureau said the operator, Wu Xiudong, fled the scene shortly after the blast ripped through an underground shaft.

They said Wu took over the mine in 1998, but the facility was closed in November last year after failing to meet safety standards. At the time of the blast it was operating illegally, they said.

Rescue workers Sunday cleared the remaining gas and clambered into the mine shaft to retrieve the bodies.

Accidents in illegal mines in China kill hundreds of miners each year. Authorities have trouble closing the down the mines in depressed areas of the country with high jobless rates.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A gas explosion caused part of an underground mine to collapse Thursday, killing at least 13 coal workers in northern Colombia, police said.

Rescue crews were desperately digging to save an unknown number of workers still trapped in the mine, said police Col. Luis Andres Estupinan, commander for Norte de Santander State near Colombia's border with Venezuela.

Ten bodies have been recovered, and police have ``already confirmed'' that they expected to find at least three more, he said.

The accident occurred Thursday afternoon in the Canabrava mine just outside the city of Cucuta, some 260 miles northeast of Bogota.

Police suspect that a worker turned on a helmet-mounted flashlight, triggering a spark that ignited the natural gases that flow through underground mines, Estupinan said.

Authorities have not determined how many workers were in the mine at the time.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

CHINGOLA, Zambia (AP) - Ground movement caused a slope in an open-pit copper mine to collapse Sunday, burying 10 mine workers in sand, a mine spokeswoman said.

The miners were feared dead, Anglo American spokeswoman Anne Dunn said in a statement. The accident happened Sunday afternoon at the Konkola Copper Mines in Chingola, some 185 miles north of Zambia's capital, Lusaka.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The president of the United Mine Workers of America said coal companies had better be prepared to share the wealth they are reaping from the highest coal prices in 20 years or face a strike next year.

Cecil Roberts told mine workers at a Mitchell's Day celebration in Fayette County on Sunday that the union will strike if it can't reach a new agreement this year with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association.

Although the current five-year agreement doesn't end until Dec. 31, 2002, the union unanimously approved a resolution at its convention last March to seek early negotiations on a new contract.

``If we don't get a contract this year, then next year we'll strike this industry until we get our just due,'' Roberts said. ``You have earned everything you're asking for. All we want is a little dignity.''

The contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association - a coalition of a half-dozen coal companies - covers more than 100,000 active, laid-off and retired union miners nationwide.

The coal association's spokesman, Morris Feibusch, wouldn't say if the group would consider early negotiations.

``We're extraordinarily silent on issues having to do with labor negotiations,'' Feibusch said. ``What (Roberts) said is what he said - it was a Mitchell Day speech.''

John Mitchell guided the union during a five-month strike in Pennsylvania, earning workers a pay raise and eight-hour work day in 1902.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

BEIJING (AP) - Coal miners clashed with police in a protest over layoff payments that they said were too low, a human rights group said Friday.

The protest took place Thursday in Datong in the northern province of Shanxi, a poor area hurt by state industry job cuts, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Such protests are becoming common in China as mines and other government companies slash work forces to cope with the loss of state subsidies.

Protesting miners said a one-time $2,440 payment to 3,500 miners laid off by the Shanxi Datong Mining Group was inadequate, especially because many need treatment for illnesses stemming from long years in the mine, the center said.

The protest broke up after the company promised to look into additional compensation.

Mine employees contacted by phone denied the report or refused comment.

On Friday, the center said, some 2,000 miners blocked a road and surrounded a police station, forcing officers to release a miner arrested during the earlier protest.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

PATNA, India (AP) - Anxious relatives of 32 miners trapped in a coal mine for five days in eastern India surrounded the entrance to the mine Tuesday as hopes receded of finding the miners alive.

Fearing that officials would call off rescue efforts, families of the miners gathered just outside the mine entrance, hampering rescue efforts, a mine official said.

Fifty-one miners were in the state-owned Bagdigi coal mines in eastern India's Jharkhand state when water burst through a wall from an adjoining mine Friday. Nineteen miners escaped.

The breach was not linked to a massive earthquake that shook India's western Gujarat state, about 1,200 miles from the mining area.

A fight broke out on Monday night between relatives of the trapped miners and police after one miner's body was fished out of the water that filled part of the mine.

The body of Pritam Singh was pulled out by Indian navy divers.

Two teams of navy divers made a second attempt Tuesday to search for the miners, the United News Of India news agency said.

Their first mission on Sunday, when they entered the mine from an adjoining mine shaft, failed.

Water in the mine was being pumped out by nine pumps, and a tenth pump was installed Tuesday.

Officials of state-owned Coal India Ltd. announced Tuesday that a family member of each miner would be given a job with the company and that the immediate family would receive cash compensation of $13,830.

Earlier Stories
32 Feared Dead in India Accident (February 4)

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

BEIJING (Reuters) - Twenty-one trapped coalminers died in a pit in southwest China after three days of rescue efforts failed, the China Daily reported on Tuesday.

The mine in Laibing county in the southwestern province of Guangxi flooded last Friday, trapping 22 miners. One man was swept to safety by floodwaters, the newspaper said.

The cause of the accident was still under investigation, it added.

A string of fatal accidents at China's poorly regulated coal mines killed 5,317 people in the first 11 months of last year, according to a state newspaper report in November.

``Most of the accidents took place in small and illegally run coal mines where ventilation, fire protection and safety awareness were low,'' the newspaper said.

The government would invest 770 million yuan ($93 million) over the next five years to improve safety conditions in mines in the northern provinces of Heilongjiang and Shanxi, it said.

News Resources Message Boards: Post and read messages about this story Requires a Yahoo! ID to post messages. Conversations: Start a live discussion Requires Yahoo! Messenger

RANCHI, India (Reuters) - Thirty-eight miners were trapped on Friday after water flooded a coal mine in eastern India, police said.

Fifty-one miners were working in the underground Bagdih coal mine of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd in the Dhanbad area of the newly formed state of Jharkhand when the water flooded into the mine. Only 13 were rescued.

``Thirty-eight are still trapped,'' said D.P. Sinha, Director General of Police of Jharkhand.

In 1995 Bharat Coking Coal ordered some 100,000 miners to stay away from its coal shafts after at least 74 workers died in a string of accidents following torrential rains.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

KIEV (Reuters) - A methane gas explosion killed nine coal miners and injured 15 on Sunday in a mineshaft in the latest of a long series of accidents in Ukraine's eastern Donbass coalfield, the Emergencies Ministry said.

A spokesman for the ministry said a further 54 miners who had been safely evacuated from the mine near the town of Dimitrov in the former Soviet state's rusting industrial heartland.

``There's no one left in the mineshaft,'' said the spokesman. ''A state commission will investigate the causes of the accident.''

Hundreds of miners die every year in accidents including explosions and rock falls in Ukraine's inefficient Soviet-era coal mines, many of which have let safety standards slip as they fight for survival without many of the subsidies they once had.

In one of the country's worst mining disasters, 80 men were killed in a single gas explosion near Luhansk last year.

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

Full Coverage In-depth coverage about Ukraine Related News Stories · Sacked Ukrainian Minister Pledges to Back Reforms - Reuters (Jan 22, 2001) · Ukraine: deputy PM dismissed - BBC (Jan 19, 2001) · World's Deepest Cave Discovered - Discovery Online (Jan 17, 2001) · Ukrainian minister 'mustn't leave Kiev ' - BBC (Jan 15, 2001) · Ukraine's President Faces Crisis - Radio Netherlands (Jan 12, 2001) More... Related Web Sites · Embassy of Ukraine to the United States - includes official press releases from the Ukraine government. · BRAMA: Gateway Ukraine - comprehensive site that includes a profile of the government and a section on Ukrainian history. · UKRAINET - includes a fact sheet on the country, a list of Ukraine-related periodicals, and more. · Ukraine - directory of Ukraine-related sites from the Russian and East European Network Information Center at the University of Texas. · UN Report: The Physical Resources of Ukraine - discusses Ukraine's mineral resources. More... Opinion & Editorials · Crossroads in Ukraine - Washington Post (Dec 26, 2000) · The last gasp of Chernobyl's reactor - Chicago Tribune (Dec 16, 2000) · This Beast Took Too Long to Kill - Moscow Times (Dec 15, 2000) More... Magazine Articles · Schemes and scandals in Ukraine - The Economist (Jan 18, 2001) · Chernobyl Is Closed, But for How Long? - Time Magazine (Dec 15, 2000) · Chernobyl is shut down - The Guardian (Dec 7, 2000) More... Audio · Yalta Fights Lack of Tourists - NPR (Dec 20, 2000) · Last Remaining Reactor Shut Down at Chernobyl - NPR (Dec 14, 2000) · Journalist's Disappearance Blamed on Ukraine President - NPR (Nov 30, 2000) More... Video · A string of mining accidents - BBC (Mar 11, 2000) Yahoo! Categories · Mining · Ukraine More...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A methane gas explosion killed nine people and injured about 15 others in a coal mine in Ukraine's Donetsk region on Sunday, news reports said.

A total of 59 miners were working about 2,460 feet underground at the Krasnolimanskaya mine in the town of Krasnoarmeisk at the time, said Mykhailo Kliagin, a spokesman for a militarized mining rescue service in Donetsk.

Elsewhere, three miners who were trapped underground late Friday by a coal layer collapse in the Luhansk region were rescued Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported. They were reported to be in a satisfactory condition.

Ukraine's mines, which are considered the world's most dangerous, cannot maintain proper safety conditions or modernize equipment due to insufficient funds and cuts in subsidies.

At least 18 miners have been killed so far this year in Ukraine. Last year, 318 deaths were reported in mining accidents, including 81 who were died in a methane gas explosion at the Barakova mine in the town of Krasnodon in March.

Earlier Stories
At Least 7 Die in Ukraine Mine Blast (January 21)

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs Conversations: Start a live discussion

By MARTIN FACKLER, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) - A fire at a shopping center where emergency exits were blocked kills 309. An army truck carrying artillery shells through a residential neighborhood explodes, killing 67. Coal mine accidents take more than 100 lives every week.

In short, China can be a deadly place to live and work. And a recent rash of accidents has renewed concerns that China is sacrificing safety in a rush for economic growth.

The government is scrambling to control the political damage, fearful that public anger over deadly disasters - and the official corruption and ineptitude often linked to them - could undermine its credibility and its grip on power. It has tried to disarm critics by being more forthcoming with news of accidents, tightening laws and making a show of punishing those it finds responsible.

But many dismiss these as cosmetic measures that don't get to the root of the problem: officials they say are too intent on enriching themselves, or simply too incompetent, to safeguard the public.

They also say China's all-out push for economic development is breeding a get-rich-quick attitude that produces dangerously shoddy goods, buildings without escape routes, even rice laced with deadly chemicals that make it appear whiter.

``They tell us that they want to serve the people, but whom do they really serve? Not us!'' cried a woman who joined hundreds who gathered Thursday at a hotel in the central city of Luoyang. The crowd was waiting to learn the fate of relatives missing in Monday's shopping center fire that killed 309 people.

After the fire, investigators discovered that iron gates blocked stairwells leading down from the top-floor disco where most of the victims died, state media said Friday. The only way out was a single elevator, the reports said.

Beijing has been uncharacteristically frank in telling the public about the disaster.

State-run Chinese Central Television ran a long report that showed the shopping center's blackened interior. It also reported that fires killed 2,093 people in the first nine months of this year, 7.3 percent more than in the same period last year.

``Severe problems still exist in current safety work,'' said a sternly worded directive from the State Council, China's cabinet, carried Friday on the government's Xinhua News Agency. The directive ordered local governments to ``draw lessons'' from the fire and warned that ``officials will be responsible for safety problems that occur.''

Several officials have been punished or taken to task recently for disasters.

In September, China's communications minister and the governor of northeastern Liaoning province were admonished for a November 1999 ferry sinking that killed 282 people. Two top military commanders were fired after a truck carrying junked shells through the western city of Urumqi exploded in September, killing 67.

In December, China also implemented new rules aimed at improving safety in its coal mines, the world's deadliest, where 4,883 people perished in the first 10 months of the year.

And in April last year, a Communist Party official was sentenced to a death for taking bribes in the construction of a pedestrian bridge that collapsed in January 1999, killing 40. He was later granted a reprieve.

But many say taking a few token heads or making new rules is not enough. Buildings without even basic safety precautions, like escape routes or sprinkler systems, and mines with poor ventilation and rudimentary equipment remain numerous. Enforcement of existing safety laws is often lax.

Public bitterness toward officials was evident among about 200 demonstrators in Luoyang on Thursday, many of them relatives of the Christmas night fire victims.

``It's the government that's responsible for what happened,'' said a man who refused to give his name but said the fire killed his brother. ``It's the government that needs to be punished.''

News Resources Message Boards: Post and read messages about this story Requires a Yahoo! ID to post messages. Conversations: Start a live discussion Requires Yahoo! Messenger