54 55 cerro de pasco The greatest investment of the XXth century it was a true underground city with its main and side streets, which made it possible for electrical and mule-driven cars to move about. Another particular feature of the operation was that in order to ensure production and reserves, a premise was followed that the new coal exposed needed to exceed that which had been previously extracted over the entire period. Thus it is that before 1920, the reserves on the surface exceeded two million tonnes, enough to guarantee the company ten years of production without the need to access new sources of fuel. This profusion of tunnels and galleries demanded a series of safety measures to protect against mine collapse. The main one was the use of pine timber beams for support, but also with eucalyptus from Huancayo. Rarely, spruce timber was imported from the United States. These measures were needed due to the unstable nature of the host rock. In spite of this, as with every coal mine in the world at that time, accidents were frequent. Falling rocks or the derailing of cargo wagons caused some of them; to a lesser degree, the emanation of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide or carbonic acid; however, it was coal dust and firedamp that were the most serious causes, since they would produce explosions followed by fires and dense columns of smoke. These gases were responsible for some notable accidents in 1910. On January 23, an explosion killed 169 miners, which led to a mine closure of six months, until new safety rules were implemented and various government inspections had taken place. However, the worst was to come when the mine reopened on August 10 of the same year. An even more intense explosion occurred at Level F, leaving 72 dead, 60 injured and 168 mine workers missing. The commission in charge of investigating the causes of the accident determined that the workers lacked the capacity to supervise the most common drilling system, known as “shooting the solid” and questioned the use of oil lamps instead of alcohol or benzene, in addition to a lack of water to dampen the galleries. In light of these events, Congress reactivated a project for a Workplace Accidents Act which dated from 1905, and in October 1910 approved Law N°. 1378, which stated: “The business owner is liable for the accidents occurring to his workers and employees at the workplace or directly arising from it”, thus replacing earlier legislation dating back to the Civil Code of 1852, in which work accidents didn’t even qualify for compensation. This change in the law became, in turn, the cornerstone for workers’ rights. � Right– “Goyllar" pithead toward the end of the thirties. This mine would provide coal for different uses over a period of nine decades.
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