Injured miner reveals harrowing details of Grosvenor blast
A miner injured at central Queensland’s Grosvenor mine has described a devastating explosion at the site last May, telling an inquiry management had been warned about methane bubbling through the floor and an unstable roof.
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A coal miner has described being engulfed in blue flame and catching on fire underground after being hit by two pressure waves “like a cyclone,” in a devastating explosion at Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine.
Shearer driver Wayne Sellars is the first of five miners burned in the May 6, 2020, explosion to publicly talk about the blast and its aftermath, in harrowing testimony to the Queensland coal mining board of inquiry.
Mr Sellars said he and his colleagues repeatedly warned Anglo American management at the central Queensland site about safety issues, including methane bubbling up through the floor and an unstable roof that kept caving in.
He said the workers’ requests for extra safety measures – such as injecting resin into the walls and roof to make it more stable, or only cutting coal in one direction to reduce workers’ exposure to dust – were often denied by management.
On May 6, he said the first pressure wave caught him by surprise, with nothing to indicate it was coming.
“(It felt like) a cyclone, a huge pressure wave,” Mr Sellars said.
He said he managed to stay standing, as one of his co-workers was knocked off his feet by the wave.
“I remember saying to (another miner) ‘They’re not going to like this, that’s another HPI (high potential incident).”
At that point, the power was automatically tripped by the high gas levels and all the lights went out.
“The next thing that happened was a second pressure wave which ignited,” Mr Sellars said.
“(There was) blue flame, yes, like a standing up blow torch.”
He said it sounded like “two stones cracked together”.
“I was on fire at that stage, I don’t recall anything from that point on.”
“When the flame stopped, it was just ‘get out’.”
He said he shoved one of his fellow workers to get out, yelled “go, go go,” and could hear another miner “screaming behind me”.
“And we started marching out,” he said.
Mr Sellars said a deputy met him.
“I take my hat off to (deputy Adam Maggs) for coming in. Maggsy tried to get me to stop. (I said) ‘F**k off, I’m not stopping’. (He said) ‘But you’re on fire’.”
“He tried to pat me out.”
Mr Sellars said he was not aware he was on fire.
He suffered burns to 70 per cent of his body, and spent three weeks in intensive care in Brisbane, and an extra six weeks in hospital, before later being readmitted for complications.
Mr Sellars had kidney failure, blood clots in his lungs, and has had 10 surgeries so far. There will be three more this year, surgeries to his hands, and an ear reconstruction.
He has had skin grafts to his hands, arms, shoulders, back, face and head.
Mr Sellars said he had worked in the mining industry for 13 years, both as a permanent employee and a labour hire contractor. He was employed at Grosvenor as a contractor, through labour hire company OneKey.
He said contractors were treated differently and worse.
“If someone injured themselves, we’d lose our bonus onsite, it breeds bad culture and puts everyone off-side,” Mr Sellars said.
“As a permanent worker, if you got told you’d lose your bonus, you’d walk out on the grass.”
Mr Sellars said he did not feel unsafe in his 13 years of mining, and had never expected the explosion to happen. He said he wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
“You put a lot of trust in other people‘s judgment, you’ve got to trust your management,” he said.
In response to Mr Sellars’ testimony, Anglo American’s metallurgical coal chief executive Tyler Mitchelson said it was “unacceptable that our colleagues were injured at Grosvenor Mine last May”.
“We acknowledge the life-altering impact this incident has had on them and their families,” Mr Mitchelson said.
“As we work to put in place measures to improve the future safe operation of Grosvenor Mine, we will pay close attention to Mr Sellars’ testimony.”
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