A sad day for New Zealand

Today is the day after the second explosion at Pike River Mine. Yesterday, it was announced that there had been a second explosion which would have killed any surviving miners. Personally, I think they all died in the first explosion. I hope they did. It is even more horrible to think of them slowly suffocating, or being injured and in pain.

This is the worst mining accident in NZ for over 100 years, and over 20 years since the worst single loss of life in NZ.

This morning, there was 10 minutes of silence on Twitter in respect of the miners and their families. Many of us stayed silent for 29 minutes, a minute for each miner.

The miners are:
Allan Dixon, 59 (Rununga)
Andrew Hurren, 32 (Greymouth)
Benjamin Rockhouse, 21 (Greymouth)
Blair Sims, 28 (Greymouth)
Brendon Palmer, 27 (Cobden)
Christopher Duggan, 31 (Greymouth)
Conrad Adams, 43 (Greymouth)
Daniel Herk, 36 (Rununga)
David Hoggart, 33 (Foxton)
Francis Marden, 42 (Runanga)
Glen Cruse, 35 (Cobden)
Jacobus ‘Koos’ Jonker, 47 (Coben – South African)
John Hale, 45 (Ruatapu)
Joseph Dunbar, 17 (Greymouth)
Joshua Ufer 25 (Australia)
Kane Nieper, 33 (Greymouth)
Keith Valli, 62 (Winton)
Malcolm Campbell, 25 (Greymouth – Scottish)
Michael Monk, 23 (Greymouth)
Milton Osborne, 54 (Ngahere)
Peter O’Neill, 55 (Rununga)
Peter Rodger, 40 (Greymouth – British)
Richard Holling, 41 (Blackball)
Riki Keane, 28 (Greymouth)
Samuel Mackie, 26 (Greymouth)
Stuart Mudge, 31 (Rununga)
Terry Kitchin, 41 (Runanga)
William Joynson, 49 (Dunollie – Australian)
Zen Drew, 21 (Greymouth)

I really feel for the families, and am grateful to the rescuers, miners, police, paramedics, and other countries who leant their help and support. I can't even imagine how tough this christmas is going to be for the families without dad, brother, husband, partner, son, friend.

Above everything, I think we all need to realize what a great job the command team has done of the rescue/recovery mission so far. They were right to not send rescuers in - safety needs to be (and was) the paramount consideration. This would have been even more tragic if we were to endanger the lives of even more of the community.

Thank you to all of the media who were tactful and respectful in this very tough situation. John Campbell did some really fantastic, heartfelt interviews last night. We should also thank PM John Key who was a great spokesperson for our country.

Most importantly, however, we need to thank Supt Gary Knowles who ran the rescue mission and Pike River CEO Peter Whittall who has been the spokesperson to the families and media.