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At least 7 dead, 150 missing in Brazil dam collapse disaster
BRUMADINHO, Brazil, Jan 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A collapse of a disused dam at
an iron-ore mine complex in southeast Brazil killed at least seven people and
left 150 missing, officials said, as they sought to evaluate the full scope
of the disaster.
The tailings dam, owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale, broke apart “very
violently, very suddenly,” sending a massive torrent of mud over the complex
where 300 mine employees were working, Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman told a news
conference in Rio de Janeiro.
The deluge rumbled on to the nearby town of Brumadinho, located southwest
of the city of Belo Horizonte, cutting a swath through vegetation, farmland
and roads, and impeding access to the area.
The death toll was expected to go higher, as rescue teams scoured through
the big disaster zone overnight into Saturday.
Brazil’s new government led by President Jair Bolsonaro reacted to its
first big emergency since taking office early this month by launching
disaster coordination between the defense, mining and environment ministries
and authorities in the affected state of Minas Gerais.
Bolsonaro and his defense minister were to fly over the zone on Saturday.
His environment minister raced to the area late Friday.
An AFP photographer viewing the zone from the air described tractors,
houses and a bridge submerged in mud, and emergency crews using earth-moving
machinery to search for survivors.
Television images earlier showed helicopters being used to rescue people
stuck in mud. – ‘Human tragedy’ –
Schvartsman called the dam break “a human tragedy, because we’re talking
about probably a large number of victims — we don’t know how many but we
know it will be a high number.”
He said more than 100 of the mine’s employees had been located alive, but
the rest were missing.
Schvartsman, who had his two-year term renewed just last month by Vale’s
board, said the it had been an “inactive dam” that was in the process of
being decommissioned that burst apart.
Its contents — tailings, or mining byproducts mixed with water —
cascaded into another dam, which overflowed, he said.
The liquid, brown mass — reportedly quantified at one million tons by
Ibama, Brazil’s environmental protection agency — barreled on towards
Brumadinho, population 39,000, but did not deal it a direct hit.
– Vale shares plunge –
Shares in Vale plummeted eight percent in New York trading Friday. The Sao
Paulo stock market was closed for a holiday.
Friday’s disaster recalled trauma from a 2015 dam break in a different
part of the same state of Minas Gerais, in Mariana, in which 19 people died.
That accident three years ago released millions of tons of toxic iron
waste along hundreds of kilometers (miles), causing what is considered the
country’s worst environmental disaster. Vale was joint operator of that dam,
along with the Anglo-Australian group BHP.
An AFP photographer said police had blocked access roads to Brumadinho on
Friday after the disaster.
Civil defense officials said people living in low-lying areas in the town
had been evacuated.
Vale issued a statement saying it had set up shelters for Brumadinho
residents left homeless.
Brumadinho’s municipality issued an alert on social media warning
residents to move away from the Paraopeba river that the dam had been holding
back.
The town is best known to tourists for Inhotim, an outdoor contemporary
art museum, which was evacuated as a precaution. The venue receives 35,000
visitors a month.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0848 hrs