Running late saved my life, says blast survivor

The entrance to the Pike River mine. Photo / Simon Baker/POOL

Russell Smith - a coal cutter who walked out of the Pike River mine after the explosion - was running late for work, which he thinks is why he is still alive.

"As luck would have it, I was late getting to work. I was an hour late so I didn't get up in the mine till late. If I didn't, I'd probably be up the face with the rest of them and be trapped there," he told 3 News.

"Because I wasn't as far up ... the explosion wasn't as bad for me. It just bowled me over and knocked me unconscious and someone dragged me about 300 metres, brought me around and then two of us held each other to get out of the mine."

Mr Smith described the explosion as quick and without heat or smell.

"I just remember seeing a flash of something in front of me and then the concussion hit me. It wasn't just a bang. It just kept coming, kept coming, kept coming.

"So I crouched down as low as I could in the seat to try to get behind this metal door [on the loader he was driving] to stop being pelted with all this debris ... I just couldn't breathe and that's the last I could remember and then someone found me about 15 minutes or so later."

Mr Smith said the next thing he remembers is looking out of the ambulance as it was driving into Greymouth.

He thinks it took him an hour and a half to get out of the mine with his rescuer, Daniel Rockhouse.

He only just found out who was in the mine because of alternating shifts and different starting times. "There are a lot of guys down there with a lot of people waiting for them whether they're alive or dead."