Russia is still recovering from one of it’s most tragic mining accidents in history
The accident occurred when a ventilation shaft started filling with gas as 285 people were in the mine
The following written content from RFERL
The bodies of five coal miners who were killed when an explosion ripped through a mine in the Siberian region of Kemerovo on November 25 have been recovered and brought to the surface, local officials reported.
The regional government’s office posted on November 28 that one team of rescue workers was still in the mine, pumping out water and stabilizing carbon monoxide levels.
The bodies were reportedly found at a depth of 365 meters and rescuers had to travel 4.6 kilometers to reach them. Thirty-two bodies are yet to be recovered.
In all, 51 people, including five rescue workers, were killed in the disaster. Sixty people were injured and hospitalized, while a total of 239 miners were successfully evacuated.
On November 27, a group of miners from the mine told journalists that they were regularly given meters for measuring methane levels in the mine that had been tampered with to give lower readings. Nonetheless, the miners said, the equipment recorded excessive methane levels both in August and earlier this month. The miners provided photographs and videos showing the purported violations.
The miners also alleged that, for the first 90 minutes following the explosion, no ambulances or rescue workers arrived at the scene and only other miners began helping those still below ground.
Two criminal cases into allegations of safety violations and criminal neglect have been opened and five people — the mine director, his deputy, the immediate site supervisor, and two state safety inspectors — have been arrested and charged.
The Listvyazhnaya coal mine, opened in 2003, is part of SDS-Ugol, one of Russia’s largest mining companies. It is Russia’s third-largest coal extractor and exporter.
According to Andrei Vil, a representative of the state Rostekhnadzor monitoring agency, the mine was inspected 127 times in 2021, as a result of which 914 violations were documented and work was stopped nine times. The most recent inspection, according to Rostekhnadzor reports, took place the day before the explosion. Read more from RFERL
Russia’s worst mining disasters – A timeline
The following written content from MT
At least 50 miners and rescuers died Thursday after smoke filled a coal mine in Siberia, the latest in a string of disasters to hit Russia’s mining industry in recent decades.
Though dozens of those still trapped inside were believed to have perished, authorities said one survivor was recovered from the site early Friday. Several of the mine’s managers have been detained for suspected safety violations.
Here’s a look at the other deadly mining incidents, most of them in the Kemerovo mining region, also known as Kuzbass, that have taken place in Russia’s post-Soviet history:
March 2007
Kuzbass was hit by Russia’s worst mining disaster in living memory on March 19, 2007, when at least 108 miners died in a methane explosion and fire at the Ulyanovskaya mine.
Investigators found signs of tampering with safety equipment designed to prevent miners from working in unsafe conditions, a safety watchdog said at the time.
May 2007
Shortly after the Ulyanovskaya mine disaster, at least 38 people were killed in a methane explosion in Kemerovo’s Yubileynaya mine on May 24, 2007.
Investigators said a damaged cable spark had triggered an explosion at the mine.
May 2010
On May 8, 2010, an explosion ripped through the Raspadskaya mine in the Kemerovo region that took the lives of 91 men.
The cause: miners laid a wet cloth over sensors, hampering their ability to monitor the level of explosive methane gas.
February 2016
Outside Kemerovo, at least 36 miners and rescuers were killed in a series of explosions at the Severnaya coal mine inside the Arctic Circle on Feb. 25, 2016, north of the city of Vorkuta in the republic of Komi.
Leaking methane gas was also believed to have caused this week’s incident, which is Russia’s fifth-deadliest mining disaster in the 21st century. Read more from MT
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