Woman widowed after Pike River explosion says fight for answers 'worth every minute'

March 22, 2021

It’s the first time the team’s worked in breathing apparatus in the entire operation.

A woman who was widowed after her husband was killed in the Pike River explosion says her fight for answers has been worth "absolutely every minute of the 10 years" as mine recovery experts begin another week at the furthest point of re-entry into the coal mine.

Twenty-nine miners were killed in a series of explosions at the mine, on the West Coast, on November 19, 2010.

Images released last month show the Pike River Recovery team, wearing breathing apparatus, located around two kilometres up the mine drift as they approach the end of their mission.

It's the first time the team's worked wearing breathing apparatus during the entire recovery operation.

There is one area of the mine called Pit Bottom in Stone, still mandated to be recovered. Once that's done the recovery team will almost be finished.

This footage shows the Rocsil plug, which has sealed off the drift from the rest of the mine.

It may be months before it's known whether the recovery mission has discovered new evidence for prosecutions over the deadly workplace incident.

It does seem certain that the bodies of all 29 men are on the other side of the roof fall and as it stands, the recovery team won't enter that area.

The recovery team’s chief operating officer, Dinghy Pattinson, told Breakfast from the Pike River Recovery offices in Greymouth, that the group reached the roof fall - one of their “major mandates from the Government” which enables "forensics and the investigation to be carried out" - on February 16. 

"It was a great achievement, you know, a great effort by the guys and that last section of that had to be done in breathing apparatus so a lot of planning involved in that," he said. "It went really well, it was well-executed plans."

He said the whole drift had been recovered in fresh air, but added that the team "always knew if we got this far, if we could get to the end, then the last stage would most likely be in breathing apparatus".

Anna Osborne, who lost her husband Milton in the fatal explosion, said it was "very much so" a bittersweet moment to be at the roof fall.

“I would dearly love to get through that fall because I know my man’s not that far through it and, you know, to be so close but yet so far really still upsets me, to be honest, but we just can’t get through that fall – not the mandate that we have and the funding that was given to the agency to get this job done.”

She estimates a further $60 to $100 million is needed to go further into the mine. The Government last year provided an extra $15 million after the recovery team went over the $50 million budget provided for the group to reach the roof fall but no further. 

"Would it be selfish for me to go and ask for another $60 to $100 million, because that’s probably what it’s going to cost? And if I knew the answer would be ‘no, it’s not selfish,’ I’d be knocking on the door tomorrow, but it probably is really selfish and unless someone wants to give us $100 million, unfortunately, this is where the job needs to stop."

Pattinson agreed with the sentiment, saying from his experience in the field and "from what I’ve seen down there", "I’ve never seen a roof fall that can’t be recovered but it’s at what cost and where does that money from?".

"Our mandate was, and always has been, to get as far as the roof fall to enable to forensics investigation to be complete," he said.

"We've achieved that, we’ve still got some work to do at Pit Bottom in Stone and the side roads to examine and bring gear out of to enable that investigation to be complete, but as far as advancing forward, we've achieved that and people should be proud of that."

Osborne said despite the hardships she's experienced, it has been worth "absolutely every minute of the 10 years it's been".

"It's gotten us closer to the truth and it also meant that our men have not lost their voices."

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