Donetsk Oblast mine accident kills 31; five miners still missing (07/25/04)

Donetsk Oblast mine accident kills 31; five miners still missing

by Vasyl Pawlowsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Emergency crews flooded a mine shaft with water and 7,000 cubic meters of nitrogen in order to try to extinguish a raging fire caused by a deadly explosion of methane on July 19 that left at least 31 miners dead at the Krasnolymansk mine near the city of Rodinske in Donetsk Oblast. However, even through these efforts the 54 rescue teams failed to put out the inferno, according to a report from the Ministry of Emergencies.

Forty-eight miners were in the mine at the time of the explosion; 12 managed to escape.

According to an Associated Press report, the attempts to put out the fire were hampered by deadly gases and temperatures, which reached as high as 120 degrees (F).

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who visited the disaster scene, said that "everything possible" would be done to rescue the men and promised government support for the deceased miners' families.

Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev, who is heading the State Commission investigating the disaster, said that 31 bodies had been recovered as of Tuesday, July 20, and five miners were still unaccounted for; and as of Wednesday, July 21, there was little hope that they would be found alive.

Mr. Kliuyev added that the Commission had already met with the victims' families, and that the Cabinet of Ministers has allotted 2.5 million hrv to the survivors of those killed.

Officials stated that it is still too early to say what caused the blast on the night of Monday, July 19, though the investigation's aim was to determine this.

Authorities proclaimed three days of mourning for those killed in the disaster, and flags in the capital and Donetsk were adorned with black ribbons.

In response to the disaster, condolences were sent by a number of world leaders, including the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and Pope John Paul II.

On behalf of the pope, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano sent a telegram to Bishop Stepan Meniok, exarch of Donetsk-Kharkiv. It read: "The holy father requested that his sympathy be expressed to the relatives and friends of the victims, as well as to the authorities."

Cardinal Sodano's message also noted: "While [the pope] assures you of his fervent prayers for the repose of the souls of the deceased and for consolation for the wounded and all those who are suffering as a result of this serious accident, he sends you a special apostolic blessing as a sign of his spiritual closeness."

Ukraine's mines are considered to be the most dangerous in the world due to lack of respect for safety procedures, high concentrations of methane, and antiquated equipment.

The Krasnolymansk mine is considered to be one of the country's most dangerous mines due to the high concentrations of methane. Three years ago a methane explosion there killed nine miners. While it is one of the most dangerous, it is also one of the most profitable mines and extracts approximately 10,000 tons of coal daily.

This latest disaster brings the death toll in Ukraine's mines to at least 448 deaths in accident since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, whereas the total number of deaths is over 3,700, according to the State Labor Protection Committee, with 267 deaths in 2003 alone.

After an explosion at the Barakova coal mine in Luhansk in March 2000, in which at least 80 miners were killed, the government developed new and stringent safety regulations for mines, which came into effect in October of that year.

According to the government's 2002 program on increasing safety in Ukraine's mines, of the 190 mines that were operating at that time, 90 percent of them are dangerous due to the possibility of methane explosions, while 60 percent of them have high concentrations of coal dust, which also is highly explosive.

The same document, obtained by The Weekly, indicates that the levels of safety had constantly decreased over the 10-year period from 1991 to 2001. "The volume of methane, extracted using degasification systems, decreased from 590 million cubic meters to 230 million cubic meters per year. The number of mines that are using degasification technologies had decreased from 86 to 45," the document notes.

In an attempt to improve the level of safety in Ukraine's mines, the government announced in 2002, that it planned to spend over 1.3 billion hrv, (about $253,490,126 U.S.), with the first priority being placed on the improvement of degasification systems in the mines. The work was to be completed by the end of this year.

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