Methane gas leak kills miners in Ukraine

20/09/2006 - 14:37:00
A methane gas leak killed 13 Ukrainian coal miners and injured at least 61 at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine early today, officials said.

That was the fourth major accident to hit the Zasyadko mine in the Donetsk region in seven years, and again focused attention on the dangers of Ukraine’s poorly funded and outdated mining sector.

Emergency Situations spokesman Ihor Krol said “an unexpected eruption of a coal and gas mixture” – later identified as methane – occurred early this morning at a depth of 3,500ft when 400 miners were working underground. Forty-nine miners were trapped.

Rescuers, working through the morning, managed to save 36 of them, bringing the injured men to the surface for medical treatment. The bodies of 13 others were found, Krol said.

Another 351 miners were evacuated from safer areas of the mine, but 25 of them also sought medical help, Krol said.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuev who rushed to the site to take charge of the rescue efforts and official investigation said there had been no explosion and no fire, and the victims died from methane poisoning.

“Methane probably emitted from rocks,” he said in televised remarks.

He said the rescued miners all showed signs of methane poisoning.

Initially, Krol said that 400 other miners who were also working in the mine at the time of the blast were evacuated. But later, he said that 150 remained underground, but in a different part of the mine not affected by the blast. Krol said they were not considered in danger and crews were working to bring them to the surface.

Relatives and friends of the miners gathered around the central entrance to the mine, which was crowded with emergency vehicles.

Ukraine has some of the world’s most dangerous mines, due to outdated equipment and poor safety standards. Since the 1991 Soviet collapse, nearly 4,300 miners have been killed in accidents. Officials say that for every 1 million tons of coal brought to the surface in Ukraine, three miners lose their lives.

The Zasyadko mine has earned a reputation as one of the most deadly. In 2002, a methane explosion killed 20 miners. A year earlier, 54 died, also in an explosion of methane gas. In May 1999, 50 miners were killed in a methane and coal dust blast at Zasyadko.

The Zasyadko mine is reportedly linked to Ukraine’s richest man, steel and coal magnate Rinat Akhmetov.