Brumadinho Dam Collapse (Brazil)

Описание: On Friday, January 25, 2019, The Feijão iron ore mine tailings dam collapsed & unleashed a mudflow leaving at least 147 people missing & 166 dead in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The dam near Feijão iron ore mine burst its barrier at around 1 p.m. local time on Friday, flooding another dam down below, the torrent of sludge cut through the dam's complex, many of those who died & remain missing were workers at the iron ore mine, they became buried under an avalanche of sludgy mining waste when the dam collapsed above the facility's cafeteria & main administrative area, the mudslide also hit nearby farms & the neighbourhood where many of the workers live, destroying houses & vehicles, at a railroad branch, in the Córrego do Feijão region, three locomotives & 132 wagons were buried, four railwaymen remain missing, the mud also struck & destroyed two sections of railway bridge & about 100 metres of railway track.

Search efforts stopped on Saturday January 26, at 8 p.m., the fire department said, & will resume on Sunday, January 27, at 4 a.m. the reason for this, the department said, is because of the increased flow of one of the dams being drained to lesson the risk of another possible burst, also, heavy rains were a problem for rescue aircraft, the department said it understands the possibility of finding people alive decreases as the hours pass, & it will continue the search until all victims are found.

Dozens of trapped people, many of them covered in mud, had to be evacuated by helicopter as roads were destroyed, many other residents had been evacuated as a security measure, the fire department said 22 bodies had been recovered, the civil defense agency & the fire department confirmed 366 people were found & 276 remain missing, the fire department also said 23 people remain in the hospital & four have been discharged.

On Tuesday, January 29, 2019, The Brazilian police arrested five people as part of an investigation into the dam rupture, including three employees of the mining company Vale S.A. that manages the Feijão mine, they have updated a list online with 251 names of people they have not been able to contact, at a press conference, Vale S.A.'s President, Fabio Schvartsman, stated that most of the victims are Vale S.A.'s employees, as of Saturday, February 2, 2019, at least 84 people were confirmed dead, 276 were considered missing & 192 people were rescued alive.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro thanked Israel for sending an army delegation to assist in search & rescue efforts, the Israeli delegation was headed by Col. (res) Golan Vach, the commander of Israel's national search & rescue unit, & included some 130 soldiers & officers from both active duty & reserve forces, among them, engineering experts, doctors, & search & rescue personnel, firefighters, & soldiers from the IDF's underwater missions unit.

The authorities have frozen more than US$3 billion (S$4.05 billion) in Vale S.A. company assets in anticipation that it will pay damages, compensation & fines, the Solicitor-General's office said all of the costs associated with tragedy incurred by the federal government would be charged to Vale.

On Friday, February 8, 2019, The Brazilian authorities have ordered the mining company Vale S.A. to evacuate 500 people from the vicinity around Sul Superior tailings dam at a mine near Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, in a separate development, 200 people were evacuated from Itatiaiuçu, in the same state.

Police arrested three Vale employees & two engineers from the São Paulo offices of the German company TÜV SÜD, which provided stability declarations for the Brumadinho dam, employees have said that the dam had a leak last year.

On Friday, February 15, 2019, Eight employees of the Brazilian mining giant Vale S.A. have been arrested as part of the criminal investigation, search warrants have been issued for four people from German consultancy firm Tüv Süd, the arrests were made in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro & Belo Horizonte, two of the arrested are Vale executives who will all be questioned by investigators in Belo Horizonte.

TÜV SÜD carried out an audit in September, 2018, which found the dam met legal requirements, an internal report said the Brazilian mining company knew the dam was at risk as it was told the site breached guidelines months before it collapsed, Vale S.A. said the report was misleading as there was no evidence of imminent risk.

TÜV SÜD: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/TÜV_Süd
Vale S.A.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_(c...)
Brumadinho Dam Disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadi...

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