79 Rescued The Chilean Mining Accident

CHAPTER 1 The Story Begins "WE FELT LIKE THE MOUNTAIN WAS COMING DOWN ON TOP OF US -THEN CAME THE DUST CLOUD, FOUR OR FIVE HOURS IN WHICH WE COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING." With these words, the leader of a group of miners, Luis Urzüa, describes the terrible moment when the mine collapsed. It was 2 p.m. on August 5, 2010. Luis and 32 other men were working in the mine as usual. Suddenly rocks began to fall from the roofs and walls, making a cloud of dust. The nightmare that every miner has always imagined was coming true. The confused, frightened men called out to each other in the dark. Who was dead and who was alive? Soon all 33 of them had been counted. Incredibly, all the miners had survived.

第一章故事是这样开始的：“我们觉得那座山要压到我们头上来了——然后是尘雾，四五个小时里我们什么也看不见。” 一群矿工的领导者Luis urz<e:1>用这些话描述了矿井坍塌的可怕时刻。 那是2010年8月5日下午2点。 路易斯和其他32个人像往常一样在矿井里工作。 突然，岩石开始从屋顶和墙上掉下来，形成一团灰尘。 每个矿工一直想象的噩梦正在成为现实。 困惑、恐惧的人们在黑暗中互相呼唤。 谁死了，谁还活着？ 很快，33个国家全部清点完毕。 令人难以置信的是，所有的矿工都幸存了下来。

But what should they do next? The miners looked for a way out, but found none. They wondered if rescuers would come and how long it would take them. They asked themselves how they would cope while they waited. And so began a nightmare that those men will never forget. The story started at the San Jose copper and gold mine in the Atacama Desert, in Chile, but reached the homes and the hearts of people all over the Copper mines have been very important in Chile for centuries, and most of them are in the Atacama Desert. This is one of the driest and most difficult places to live on Earth, but it is very important for the Chilean economy. Chile gets about a third of its money by selling copper from these mines to other countries. So for many people, Chile is a country of mines, and the miners who work there are the heart of Chile.

但他们下一步该怎么做呢？ 矿工们寻找出路，但没有找到。 他们想知道救援人员是否会来，他们需要多长时间。 他们问自己在等待期间该如何应对。 于是，一场他们永远不会忘记的噩梦开始了。 故事始于智利阿塔卡马沙漠中的圣荷西铜金矿，但却深入千家万户。几个世纪以来，铜矿在智利一直很重要，其中大部分都位于阿塔卡马沙漠中。 这是地球上最干燥、最难以生存的地方之一，但它对智利的经济非常重要。 智利大约三分之一的收入来自向其他国家出售这些矿山的铜。 所以对很多人来说，智利是一个矿国，在那里工作的矿工是智利的核心。

Mining has always been a dangerous job, and accidents happen quite often all over the world. Some of these disasters have been really terrible. In France in 1906, an accident killed 1,099 miners. Since then, however, better safety rules have made mines less dangerous places to work. In Chile, the safety in large mines was generally good in 2010, but in smaller mines, the rules were not always followed. The San Jose mine was a small mine about 45 kilometers north of the town of Copiapo. It was also an old mine; it opened 121 years before the accident happened. Many people knew that the mine was unsafe. Between 1998 and 2010, there had been several accidents and at least three miners had lost their lives.

采矿一直是一项危险的工作，世界各地经常发生事故。 其中一些灾难非常可怕。 1906年在法国，一场事故造成1099名矿工死亡。 然而，从那时起，更好的安全规定使矿井的工作场所变得不那么危险。 在智利，2010年大型矿山的安全状况总体良好，但在较小的矿山，这些规定并不总是得到遵守。 圣何塞矿是一个小矿，位于科皮亚波镇以北约45公里处。 这也是一座老矿；它在事故发生121年前开放。 很多人都知道这个矿井不安全。 在1998年至2010年期间，发生了几起事故，至少有三名矿工丧生。

The owners, the San Esteban Mining Company, had been fined 42 times between 2004 and 2010 for not following safety rules. Workers were also paid more than in other mines to encourage them to work there. One leader of a workers' organization said that the managers worked "without listening to the voice of the workers when they say there is danger." Disaster was waiting to happen! On the day of the accident, two groups of miners were working in the mine. When it collapsed, the group nearest the exit escaped. Urzüa and his group didn't. They were trapped 700 meters below the ground and five kilometers from the exit. The men managed to get to an emergency refuge where they found some food and water. But there was no daylight and it was very hot and dusty. And although they didn't know it yet, this would be their home for the next 69 days!

该矿的所有者圣埃斯特班矿业公司（San Esteban Mining Company）在2004年至2010年间因不遵守安全规定而被罚款42次。 工人们的工资也比其他煤矿高，以鼓励他们在这里工作。 一个工人组织的领导人说，当工人们说有危险时，管理人员“没有倾听他们的声音”。 灾难就要发生了！事故发生当天，有两组矿工正在矿井里工作。 当它倒塌时，离出口最近的那群人逃了出来。 urz<e:1>和他的团队没有。 他们被困在地下700米，距离出口5公里。 这些人设法到达了一个紧急避难所，在那里他们找到了一些食物和水。 但是没有日光，天气又热又多尘。 虽然他们还不知道，这将是他们未来69天的家！

CHAPTER 2 Above and Below the Ground ABOVE THE GROUND, EXPERTS START PLANNING THE RESCUE, WHILE UNDER THE ATACAMA, THE MINERS START LEARNING TO SURVIVE. Below the ground, Luis Urzüa immediately realized that things were very serious for the miners. As group leader, he started organizing the men. They went into different tunnels to look for a way out. But they found only rocks. Another possibility was to climb up through the ventilation tunnel. It hadn't collapsed in the accident, but when the miners looked, they found there were no ladders. Although the company had been told during earlier safety checks to put ladders there, they hadn't done it. The men were definitely trapped.

在地面上，专家们开始计划营救，而在阿塔卡马山下，矿工们开始学习生存。 在地下，Luis urz<e:1>立即意识到矿工们的情况非常严重。 作为组长，他开始组织这些人。 他们进入不同的隧道寻找出路。 但他们只找到了岩石。 另一种可能是通过通风隧道爬上去。 它并没有在事故中倒塌，但当矿工们寻找时，他们发现没有梯子。 尽管该公司在早期的安全检查中被告知要在那里安装梯子，但他们并没有这样做。 这些人肯定被困住了。

In modern mines, there are usually elevators that go from the surface to the tunnels in the mine below. However, the San Jose mine was very old and there were no elevators. The paths to the deeper parts of the mine were long and winding. Because of this, Urzüa knew that a rescue operation would be very complicated. Maybe they would have to survive underground for many days. The miners would have to cope with many problems if this happened. To get light, the miners could use the machines in the mine to charge the batteries in their head lamps. They could also get a little natural water from the ground, but not enough. There was some water in the machines too, but it wasn't very clean. Food was one of their biggest worries. There were only enough cans of food in the refuge for two to four days, so they had to make them last for as long as possible. Each miner was allowed a tiny piece of tuna fish, a spoonful of fruit, and some milk from those cans every 48 hours. It wasn't much. Two weeks after the accident, each miner had lost about eight kilos. Things were looking very bad!

在现代矿山中，通常有从地表到井下隧道的升降机。 然而，圣何塞矿非常古老，没有电梯。 通往矿井深处的路又长又曲折。 正因为如此，urz<e:1>知道救援行动将是非常复杂的。 也许他们必须在地下生存许多天。 如果发生这种情况，矿工们将不得不应对许多问题。 为了获得光线，矿工们可以用矿里的机器给他们头灯的电池充电。 他们也可以从地下获得一点天然水，但还不够。 机器里也有一些水，但不是很干净。 食物是他们最大的担忧之一。 避难所的罐头食品只够维持两到四天，所以他们必须让这些罐头尽可能地维持下去。 每隔48小时，每个矿工可以吃一小块金枪鱼、一勺水果和一些罐头里的牛奶。 这并不多。事故发生两周后，每个矿工都瘦了大约8公斤。 事情看起来非常糟糕！