DOE: Methane caused Argao coal mine blast

The Department of Energy believes methane gas caused the coal mine explosion in Balaas, Argao town that killed one person and injured three others last Monday morning.

Engr. Roland Meneses, DOE regional energy and development division chief, said facts gathered by their investigators in the area point to methane gas as the cause of the blast at the Adlaon Energy and Development Corporation coal mine owned by Robert Go (not the former president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

He said that initial investigation conducted by the team sent from their office revealed that explosion came from inside the mine site.

Meneses explained that presence of methane emission in mining site is normal because this gas is embedded during the formation of the coal underground.

"It will explode if the percent of mixture has reached five to 10 percent," he told The FREEMAN, adding that in the case of Adlaon the percent of methane gas went beyond the tolerable level causing the explosion.

He said that the mining firm has a mining engineer but at the time of the accident, which happened at around 8:40 a.m., there was allegedly no mining engineer posted at the site to oversee and supervise safety condition.

At the time of the explosion, Meneses said that five persons were assigned to work for the first shift but that one of them, Andres Balongcas, was unscathed. The fatality was identified as Alfredo Bejasa, 35, of Manlapay, Dalaguete while the injured who were rushed to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center are Balongcas, 42, also of Manlapay, Dalaguete; Romulo Ortega, 42, of Butong, Argao and a certain Roberto Dibulosad.

As of yesterday afternoon, Meneses said that their investigators are still conducting a probe at the mine site because they have to make sure that said site is already safe and that they could get all pertinent facts on the incident before coming up with a recommendation.

Meanwhile, Ibalong Resources and Development Corporation in Ibalong, Dalaguete already resumed operations after the DOE issued a temporary permit to operate for 45 days.

DOE regional director Antonio Labios said that Ibalong was allowed to operate in temporary basis in compliance with the DOE's directive after the company committed to improve their mining operations and safety standards.

On September 7, Labios said that Ibalong had a test run and started operating on September 11.

He added that the firm is subject to strict regular monitoring for the DOE to determine if it would be given permanent permit to operate after 45 days.

DOE suspended the mining permit of Ibalong after at least eight people were killed when it exploded on December 11 last year. - Wenna A. Berondo