Springhill Of South Korea Group

HALIFAX – Moments after she learned the Westray coal mine had exploded, Bernadette Feltmate turned to face her oldest daughter as she came down the stairs.

It was Amy’s 11th birthday, and she wanted to know if her father was bringing home a cake.

But Feltmate knew her husband Roy was in the mine.

“I had to turn around and tell her,” she says, vividly recalling the moment almost 20 years ago.

“It was horrible. It was the worst thing I ever had to do in my life. To see a little girl going back up those stairs. She had her head down. She didn’t cry. She went in her room.”

It was May 9, 1992. At 5:18 a.m., far beneath the small town of Plymouth, N.S., a sudden gush of methane gas escaped from the Foord coal seam and erupted into flames. Within seconds, a huge fireball raced through the mine, stirring up coal dust that exploded in a thundering blast.

A blue-grey flash lit up the pre-dawn sky. Homes more than a kilometre away shuddered as the shock wave rumbled through the earth.

In all, there were 26 men underground at the time, most of them in the final hours of a four-day shift.

“He was probably blown to pieces,” says Feltmate, recalling a conversation she had with a group of older Cape Breton miners who had come to Westray to offer their help. “They said there wouldn’t be enough left of him to bring out.”

A team of rescuers wearing breathi...

HALIFAX - Moments after she learned the Westray coal mine had exploded, Bernadette Feltmate turned to face her oldest daughter as she came down the stairs.
It was Amy's 11th birthday, and she wanted to know if her father was bringing home a cake.
But Feltmate knew her husband Roy was in the mine.
"I had to turn around and tell her," she says, vividly recalling the moment almost 20 years ago.
"It was horrible. It was the worst thing I ever had to do in my life. To see a little girl going back up those stairs. She had her head down. She didn't cry. She went in her room."
It was May 9, 1992. At 5:18 a.m., far beneath the small town of Plymouth, N.S., a sudden gush of methane gas escaped from the Foord coal seam and erupted into flames. Within seconds, a huge fireball raced through the mine, stirring up coal dust that exploded in a thundering blast.
A blue-grey flash lit up the pre-dawn sky. Homes more than a kilometre away shuddered as the shock wave rumbled through the earth.
In all, there were 26 men underground at the time, most of them in the final hours of a four-day shift.
"He was probably blown to pieces," says Feltmate, recalling a conversation she had with a group of older Cape Breton miners who had come to Westray to offer their help. "They said there wouldn't be enough left of him to bring out."
A team of rescuers wearing breathing masks found 11 bodies the next day in the southwest section amid charred ru...

HALIFAX - Moments after she learned the Westray coal mine had exploded, Bernadette Feltmate turned to face her oldest daughter as she came down the stairs.
It was Amy's 11th birthday, and she wanted to know if her father was bringing home a cake.
But Feltmate knew her husband Roy was in the mine.
"I had to turn around and tell her," she says, vividly recalling the moment almost 20 years ago.
"It was horrible. It was the worst thing I ever had to do in my life. To see a little girl going back up those stairs. She had her head down. She didn't cry. She went in her room."
It was May 9, 1992. At 5:18 a.m., far beneath the small town of Plymouth, N.S., a sudden gush of methane gas escaped from the Foord coal seam and erupted into flames. Within seconds, a huge fireball raced through the mine, stirring up coal dust that exploded in a thundering blast.
A blue-grey flash lit up the pre-dawn sky. Homes more than a kilometre away shuddered as the shock wave rumbled through the earth.
In all, there were 26 men underground at the time, most of them in the final hours of a four-day shift.
"He was probably blown to pieces," says Feltmate, recalling a conversation she had with a group of older Cape Breton miners who had come to Westray to offer their help. "They said there wouldn't be enough left of him to bring out."
A team of rescuers wearing breathing masks found 11 bodies the next day in the southwest section amid charred rubble and ...

April 26, 2012: The United States is openly accusing China of supplying North Korea’s missile program with components and technology. This may have something to do with intense effort to recover components of the failed North Korean rocket launch on April 13th. The debris of the rocket fell into shallow water off the west coast of South Korea. Russian, Chinese, and American ships, and perhaps submarines, also joined the search. South Korea called off its search on the 17th but the U.S. appeared to be continuing. The water where the debris fell is no deeper than 100 meters (310 feet), making it easy to search for and recover parts of the rocket. If some of those recovered components can be identified as Chinese there could be problems. China has agreed to abide by embargos on North Korea, but Chinese firms are notorious for ignoring their government and just selling to whoever will buy. Ignoring this behavior is not official Chinese policy but accepting bribes to look the other way is a long accepted Chinese practice. If the U.S. or South Korea recover Chinese rocket components from the ocean floor China will simply deny any knowledge of Chinese firms selling rocket components to North Korea, or claim that the rocket components were dual use (which could be technically true). China may even agree to prosecute errant firms but these prosecutions are mainly for show. That approach has worked for years and it will take some hard-ball, behind-the-scenes diplomacy to force the Ch...

April 26, 2012: The United States is openly accusing China of supplying North Korea’s missile program with components and technology. This may have something to do with intense effort to recover components of the failed North Korean rocket launch on April 13th. The debris of the rocket fell into shallow water off the west coast of South Korea. Russian, Chinese, and American ships, and perhaps submarines, also joined the search. South Korea called off its search on the 17th but the U.S. appeared to be continuing. The water where the debris fell is no deeper than 100 meters (310 feet), making it easy to search for and recover parts of the rocket. If some of those recovered components can be identified as Chinese there could be problems. China has agreed to abide by embargos on North Korea, but Chinese firms are notorious for ignoring their government and just selling to whoever will buy. Ignoring this behavior is not official Chinese policy but accepting bribes to look the other way is a long accepted Chinese practice. If the U.S. or South Korea recover Chinese rocket components from the ocean floor China will simply deny any knowledge of Chinese firms selling rocket components to North Korea, or claim that the rocket components were dual use (which could be technically true). China may even agree to prosecute errant firms but these prosecutions are mainly for show. That approach has worked for years and it will take some hard-ball, behind-the-scenes diplomacy to force the Ch...

April 26, 2012: The United States is openly accusing China of supplying North Korea’s missile program with components and technology. This may have something to do with intense effort to recover components of the failed North Korean rocket launch on April 13th. The debris of the rocket fell into shallow water off the west coast of South Korea. Russian, Chinese, and American ships, and perhaps submarines, also joined the search. South Korea called off its search on the 17th but the U.S. appeared to be continuing. The water where the debris fell is no deeper than 100 meters (310 feet), making it easy to search for and recover parts of the rocket. If some of those recovered components can be identified as Chinese there could be problems. China has agreed to abide by embargos on North Korea, but Chinese firms are notorious for ignoring their government and just selling to whoever will buy. Ignoring this behavior is not official Chinese policy but accepting bribes to look the other way is a long accepted Chinese practice. If the U.S. or South Korea recover Chinese rocket components from the ocean floor China will simply deny any knowledge of Chinese firms selling rocket components to North Korea, or claim that the rocket components were dual use (which could be technically true). China may even agree to prosecute errant firms but these prosecutions are mainly for show. That approach has worked for years and it will take some hard-ball, behind-the-scenes diplomacy to force the Ch...