(Andre Penner/AP)
Helicopters hover over an iron ore mining complex to release thousands
of flower petals paying homage to the 110 victims confirmed killed and
238 who are still missing after a mining dam collapsed there a week ago,
in Brumadinho, Brazil, Feb. 1, 2019.
A videocamera in Brazil captured the moment when a deadly, waste-filled wave of mud, triggered by a dam collapse, began moving toward the city of Brumadinho, in the southeastern part of the country.
The deadly disaster occurred Jan. 25 at an iron-ore mine owned by Vale, a Brazilian mining company.
Brazilian authorities said at least 110 people had been confirmed dead
and at least 238 people remained missing, according to The Associated
Press.
The camera, according to BandNews TV,
was on top of a crane at the mine and captured the scene after the dam
breach, which unleashed a massive wall of muddy, mine waste.
The sludge could be seen slowly surging toward the city, eventually taking over adjacent homes and farms, and ultimately burying parts of nearby city Brumadinho.
In a statement
on its website, Vale said on Thursday that it was offering $100,000 in
local currency to each family with relatives who’d been killed, or were
missing, and providing funeral assistance.
By Friday, the company said it was expanding
its financial assistance to residents "who lived or carried out any
rural or commercial activities in the Self-Saving Zone (ZAS) of the
Emergency Action Plan for Mining Dams (PAEBM)."
Vale said it was also "fully cooperating" with authorities and that three of its workers had been arrested with two others "responsible for the audit company who testified to the stability" of that dam.
The mining company said it had also begun safely treating the streets
and fields of Brumandinho to prevent the spread of disease as an
environmental group told the AP Thursday that it had set out to test the
Paraopeba river's levels of toxicity.
"Dikes will be built in the Brumadinho mine area with the aim of
containing sediments from the tailings. Moreover, the installation of a
barrier for sediment retention near the water catchment of the city of
Pará de Minas and the construction of a sediment containment barrier in
the Paraopeba river will be concluded today," Vale said.
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