Rescuers: one doesn't need a reason to save lives

How do the miracles of life come about

"We are all just common people"

At that moment, Zhao Jinlong very much hopes for a good sleep.

Every midnight, Zhao Jinlong, a worker in the Shanxi Fenxi Mining Group's Hedong Coal Mine, hopes to find a place where he can have a good sleep, even though there are no quilts or mattresses. Most of the time, however, he has to go to the bus he arrived on and sleep on a seat sitting up for the whole night.

The rescuers are tired

At the scene of the Wangjialing Coal Mine water leakage accident, all the rescuers were troubled by a lack of sleep. Regardless of whether it was day or night, they always can make use of the nearest place to have a short rest and then throw themselves back into the work.

Despite the roar of the huge fans, they can quickly fall asleep by lying on a piece of cardboard. They also can fall asleep leaning on a steel pipe.

The cafeteria for the Fenxi Mining Group is open 24 hours because the workers' hours are not fixed. Zhao told reporters from China Youth Daily that their company had "brought the cafeteria to the site." Flour, gas cookers and kitchenware in the makeshift tents were all transported from other places.

Despite the fact that people outside were moved by these courageous and tough search and rescue personnel and suggested that they should be rewarded for their actions, Zhao has not heard there would be any special rewards. He said that he did not come here for that. He said: "I can't think of a reason that would prevent me from coming here."

As a worker from the Yuxi Coal Mine said to a reporter, "When an accident happens, why shouldn't we save the people in trouble?"

All the rescuers who were transferred from other places are good people and they only saw several reporters, so they thought that all of the reporters were from the same news agency. When the nearby workers found an interview notebook that a reporter had lost, they thought that they had found the owner every time they saw someone who looked like a reporter.

When the reporter asked to take a photo of an over 50-year-old miner, he turned around shyly and walked away leaning on a stick. "We are all nobodies," explained a miner.