MOSCOW, January 20 (Itar-Tass) – The rescue works at mine 7 in Prokopyevsk in the Kemerovo region have not stopped, deputy head of EMERCOM’s Information Department Elena Smirnykh told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
“The rescue and repairing works continue,” she said.
The rescuers are getting ready for the second stage of their work. “As the emergency part is flooded, thus pushing out methane, the works will continue in the mine itself,” Smirnykh said.
Specialists say “flooding of the passage would require about 5,000 cubic metres of water.” The mine’s specialists are monitoring the atmosphere in the mine.
Seventy-seven people were working underground when smoke started spreading in the mine at 02:15 Moscow time. Criminal proceedings have been initiated on charges of violation of safety rules at explosion-prone facilities. Sixty-nine miners have been evacuated to the surface. Four miners are reportedly dead and another four are missing, the regional branch of the Ministry for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass. A regional emergency centre has been set up. A rescue operation at the Kuzbass mine No.7 has been suspended for fear of an explosion that can be caused by high methane concentration in the mine. Specialists continue extracting gas from the mine.
Psychologists of the local branch of the emergency situations ministry and of the medicine of catastrophes are working on the site and on the telephone hotline. They offer necessary assistance to families and friends of the victims, as well as to the mine’s staff, press service of EMERCOM’s regional branch said.
Investigative bodies of the Kemerovo region have initiated criminal proceedings on charges of violation of safety rules at explosion-prone facilities in connection with the death of four miners. The Kemerovo region’s Governor Aman Tuleyev ordered to check industrial security at all coal enterprises in the region following the accident at mine 7, press service of the regional administration reported. Families of miners, who died in the accident at mine 7 in the Kemerovo region, will receive three million roubles in aid from local authorities.