Rescue teams set to save more miners
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E-mail China Daily, May 3, 2012
The procedure for these rescue teams to go into operation has been established.
Following the confirmation of a major mine disaster, the local government will ask the emergency rescue headquarters of the work safety administration for support. The headquarters then dispatches a team within 40-90 seconds, Wang told China Daily.
Although formed primarily for mine rescue, the teams will also help in cases of natural disasters or major accidents.
The rescue teams already have had experience in dealing with mine disasters.
In the Yushu earthquake, the Sichuan team were the first to enter the area. And in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, 1,400 members of the seven teams rescued 1,100 people, Wang said.
Rescuers must be in peak physical condition, Wang said, and must have served at least two years in a mine.
Once selected to be a rescuer, an arduous year of physical and mental tests follows before the candidate is ready to serve.
The retirement age is normally 40 but this can be stretched to 45, Zhao said.
A number of developed countries such as the US, Germany and Australia, have mine rescue teams and the Chinese have studied methods used in these countries.
"Once the teams are officially launched, China will have equipment compatible with developed countries," Wang said.
China joined the International Mines Rescue Body in 2003, an informal grouping that holds annual contests.
The Henan rescue team won first prize in the mine rescue contest in 2006 and the Kailuan team won third prize in 2004.
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