The Star: November 17, 2016
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16 Thursday <strong>November</strong> <strong>17</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
News<br />
Survivor says Pike River plan<br />
On Sunday, it will be six years since<br />
29 miners died on the West Coast<br />
• By Susan Strongman<br />
THERE IS no doubt in Daniel<br />
Rockhouse’s mind that he and<br />
Russell Smith were not the only<br />
two who survived the first Pike<br />
River mine explosion.<br />
Mr Rockhouse, who now lives<br />
in Christchurch, made his way<br />
out of the mine after a methane<br />
blast on <strong>November</strong> 19, 2010,<br />
dragging Mr Smith with him.<br />
<strong>The</strong> friends were the only two<br />
men who came out alive after<br />
the explosion ripped through the<br />
West Coast coal mine, leaving<br />
29 trapped inside – where they<br />
remain today.<br />
He calls Solid Energy’s plans to<br />
permanently plug the mine with<br />
concrete “disgusting.”<br />
After protests last week at its<br />
gates – which were led by Mr<br />
Rockhouse’s mother Sonya, who<br />
lost her son Benjamin, 21, and<br />
Anna Osborne, whose husband<br />
Milton, 54, died in the disaster<br />
– Environment Minister Nick<br />
Smith announced the work<br />
would be delayed.<br />
<strong>The</strong> protest was put on hold<br />
because of the North Canterbury<br />
earthquake.<br />
Sonya Rockhouse said Mr Key<br />
made a commitment to get the<br />
29 out in 2014.<br />
A spokesman for the prime<br />
minister said the Government<br />
had done everything it could to<br />
allow the recovery of the bodies,<br />
but ultimately the decision<br />
whether to re-enter the mine was<br />
Solid Energy’s.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> expert advice remains<br />
that the mine is unsafe to enter<br />
and we cannot risk further lives<br />
by allowing entry when it is not<br />
safe to do so.”<br />
Labour leader Andrew Little<br />
said independent, objective<br />
advice from mines experts<br />
had shown the drift near the<br />
entrance of the mine was safe to<br />
re-enter.<br />
“If the advice that they<br />
now seem to be receiving is<br />
accurate . . . then what possible<br />
impediment is there to go and<br />
check that out. Why wouldn’t<br />
you give it a go?”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Government could not say<br />
it had fulfilled its promise to do<br />
“everything it could” unless it<br />
took this step, he said.<br />
Nick Smith’s announcement<br />
to delay the final closure of the<br />
mine was bittersweet for Mr<br />
Rockhouse.<br />
“I think they’ve just tried to<br />
ease us into it by delaying it and<br />
pushing it back and back year<br />
after year. <strong>The</strong>y’re just kicking us<br />
in the guts once more.”<br />
He believed evidence of what<br />
caused the series of explosions<br />
could still be gathered from<br />
equipment in the mine. So could<br />
the remains of some of his mates.<br />
“Without a doubt in my mind,<br />
there are people in that mine<br />
that survived that first explosion,<br />
just like I did.<br />
“I believe that some of them<br />
survived and made an attempt<br />
to escape the mine. <strong>The</strong>y could<br />
have fallen unconscious like I<br />
did.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re could be a couple of<br />
bodies sitting in that drift right<br />
now on this side of the fall.”<br />
At the time of the explosion,<br />
Mr Rockhouse was slammed<br />
THUrsdaY JanUarY 31 2013<br />
SURVIVOR:<br />
Daniel<br />
Rockhouse with<br />
his daughter Ella<br />
Rockhouse.<br />
against the side of the mine. He<br />
lost consciousness, but woke up<br />
and was able to make his way<br />
out. He came across Smith on his<br />
way, and dragged him to safety.<br />
Mr Rockhouse said the<br />
fight for answers had been<br />
traumatising, stressful and<br />
emotional – to the point where<br />
he had stepped away. But his<br />
mother continued to battle.<br />
“Mum’s so determined that<br />
she’s not going to give up until<br />
the bitter end,” he said.<br />
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