December 04, 2008

100 miners officially listed dead in Zasyadko coalmine blast

Itar-Tass, citing Mr Sergei Storchak the head of the mining and industrial supervision authority reported that the official death toll in the November 18th 2007 methane explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the Donetsk region of Ukraine is 100. An air and methane mixture exploded at the depth of 1,078 meters at 04:11 0111GMT when there were 457 people inside the coalmine. A total of 366 workers were evacuated.

Mr Storchak said that the coalmine employed less than 5,000 people, including miners, those who work on the surface and administrative personnel. He said that “Rescuers are continuing the search and rescue operation at the coalmine. They have found 89 bodies. The fate of 11coalmners remains unknown. 39 miners are in hospitals.”

According to preliminary information, the methane explosion was caused by defective electric equipment. The governmental commission is working at the coalmine to investigate the causes of the accident. The commission is led by Mr Andrei Klyuyev deputy prime minister.

The Zasyadko coalmine, which belongs to the Ukrainian State Property Fund, was commissioned in 1958. It has a high risk of sudden gas discharges, coal dust explosions and spontaneous combustion of coal. Two technological safety inspectors are permanently on duty at the coalmine. The latest inspection, which took place on November 7th 2007 did not expose an excessive concentration of methane. In 1996, a methane explosion at a Ukrainian mine killed six works. Three years later 50 coalminers were killed in a blast. In 2001, 55 miners died in a coalmine explosion, in 2002 a coalmine tragedy claimed 20 lives and 13 people died coalmine accident in 2006.