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The Star: November 17, 2016

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16 Thursday <strong>November</strong> <strong>17</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />

follow us on facebook.com/riseupchristchurch<br />

<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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