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Miner’s birthday plans end tragically after pit caves in
The birthday plans of a 33-year-old miner ended abruptly and tragically when he was killed in a mining pit accident at Warrenbu, North West District on Saturday.
Dead is Seckou Adams of Lot 13 Old Road Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara. He was to have celebrated his birthday yesterday.
Denise Pestano, the victim’s girlfriend, told Kaieteur News that Adams was working alone with a hose in the approximately 20-foot-deep pit when one of the walls suddenly collapsed.
“He was ‘jetting’ (using the hose) in the pit…he was backing the wall and it just came down, and by the time the (other) men could say ‘wall’, it hit him.”
Ms. Pestano said that Adams was not completely buried and was still able to breathe. She estimates that it took the crew less than five minutes to pull him out, and recalled that he was still conscious.
Dead: Seckou Adams
“He was responding and saying that his feet and his back were hurting.”
The badly injured man was taken to the Matthews Ridge Hospital, some 40 minutes away, where he succumbed. His body was then taken to the Port Kaituma Mortuary.
A grieving sister, Christa Samuels said her brother should have been celebrating his birthday yesterday, and had even made calls for drinks to be sent up to his location.
According to Ms Samuels, she was told that a tree fell on her brother while he was using a hose to ‘wash down’ a section of the pit. This resulted in the pit caving in on the hapless miner before his colleagues could warn him.
“He would have been 34 and I cannot take the thought of having a Christmas without him…my brother was proud of me…he was supposed to come out and host a banquet at the Den Amstel Community Centre. He was a loved person, he loved birds and animals,” she lamented.
Adding that her brother was in the mining business with his girlfriend for several years, the sister said she learnt that her brother last spoke to his friends before heading into the pit.
Several other miners have perished in similar manner in recent years as more people rush to the interior to cash in on the high price of gold.
In October, 2012, Ann’s Grove miners Devon Barry, Deonarine Singh and Elson Singh were crushed to death when the mining pit they were working in at Aranka, Cuyuni caved in.
In January 2013, Errol Bennett, of Port Kaituma, perished in a similar manner at Arakaka backdam.
In April, 2013, a mining pit collapsed at Mahdia, killing 16-year-old Dennis Anthony Barker.
And last September, Taigo Nunes Pinto, Ronaldo Da Silva Sousa, Joao Nelson Pinto Mands and Joao Gonsalves Martins were mining in a pit about 30-40ft deep at Arau Backdam, Eteringbang, when it caved and covered them.
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